The government has postponed its decision to reduce the budget of Kurdistan to reimburse the million dollar amount of money that according to the Ministry of Oil, the country has last because the Kurds had stopped exporting oil through national pipelines.
According to the estimation of the ministry, the country has lost more than $10 billion and that is why it has asked the cabinet to cut the same amount of money from the budget arrangements with the Kurdish government and that arrangement amounts up to 17% of the total oil revenue of the country.
Ali Dhari, a member of the energy commission of the parliament of Iraq has said that the decision of postponing this matter of forcing the Kurds to pay for the loss the country has sustained due to the suspension of the oil export by Kurdistan government will ensure that the two parties can get into a discussion in the future.
Dhari has also added that the Kurds will be grateful to meet the conditions provided by the Oil Ministry and they have one week to respond to the situation.
Kurdistan has finally agreed to ship the oil to the international market through the Iraqi pipelines and has also agreed that the oil ministry can collect the royalties.
The dispute on the fact that the foreign firms are not getting paid enough for developing oil fields in Kurdistan region and some other issues related to the contract has influenced the Kurds to stop the oil export.
There are three northern provinces, Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Dahouk where the Kurds enjoy extended autonomy.
They have stated that any oil field development in their region is their responsibility only.
Baghdad has commented that any natural resource like oil will come under the jurisdiction of the central government of Iraq.
Source [Azzaman]