Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi stated that oil exports from Kurdistan region of Iraq will not be included under OPEC’s production cut extension plan.
OPEC delegates stated that Iraq has confirmed its agreement on OPEC oil export cut extension plan for next nine months. This will help the oil price to grow globally. If oil price does not grow, economy of the OPEC members will face serious crunch in near future.
Oil minister of Iraq, Luaibi said, “The reduction doesn’t include the Kurdistan Region.”
However, he also noted, “But we will be trying to include the Kurdistan Region in the reduction of its oil. I have plans to visit the Kurdistan Region and discuss this with them after my return to Iraq.”
The region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq is estimated to have 45 billion barrels of oil reserves. Exports from the fields in northern Iraq held by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stand at around 600,000 bpd.
Most of the exports from landlocked Kurdistan are being carried out via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
Iraq is the second biggest producer of OPEC. However, the country is undergoing serious financial woes due to internal fighting and global oil price depression.
Iraq was the last holdout to OPEC reaching the initial deal in November, when it first argued for exemption, due to funds need to fight ISIS, then disputing the so-called secondary sources that OPEC uses to calculate the single producers’ output levels and proposed cuts.
Iraq had to sign 6 months’ oil export cut deal at the initial stage. It is also to be noted that the country is generally noted as over producer. It was a tough decision for the country to agree on further 9 months’ extension for oil export cut.
Updated 28 May 2017 | Soruce: Oil Price | By S.Seal