According to a statement made by the autonomous Kurdistan region, it has been revealed that it will continue the oil production for export and the amount of the oil will be 140,000 bpd for this month, and then the amount of oil will be raised to 200,000 bpd for the rest of the year. This step has been taken after the payment dispute between the central government of Baghdad and this autonomous region ended in a deal.
The Kurdish government has also added that Baghdad has agreed to pay 1 trillion Iraqi dinars or $857 million for the foreign companies that have been working in the region.
This deal which was first announced on Thursday will only partially solve the dispute over oil and territory which has been going on for years between this two parties and now that dispute includes international oil majors like Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Total.
The statement of Kurdistan government has further added that the central government has agreed upon forming permanent committee which will follow up the terms that has been finalized and the committee will have the authority to resolve the future problems which can crop up for the implementation of the agreement.
In April, Kurdistan stopped the oil supply, because they said it is their protest against the due payments from the government of Baghdad for the companies working in the region. The shipment was commenced afterwards, but the KRG had threatened that it will again stop the supply by September 15, if the due payments aren’t cleared or no agreement is prepared on the matter of payments.
Both Baghdad and Kurdistan are still fighting over the fact that international majors like Exxon and Chevron has signed deals with the Kurds and according to the central government, those deals are illegal.
Kurdistan got its autonomous entity and armed forces since the year 1991 and it gets funding from the central government and also gets to use the pipeline created and monitored by Baghdad for shipping its oil. According to Baghdad, it only has all the rights to ship oil and gas.
A long awaited oil law is caught between the political fights for a long time now, but it was formed to resolve the problem between these two governments. Both the governments have opined that the process of agreement on this law is in progress, but the final result is yet to be achieved.
Source [Reuters]