SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Monday Kurdistan has the capacity to make up for at least some of the energy shortfall in Europe.
Barzani told an industry conference in Dubai that the Kurdistan Region would soon become an important source of energy, according to Reuters.
“I am confident that Kurdistan will soon become an important source of energy for the world’s growing demand,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
“We will become a net exporter of gas to the rest of Iraq, to Turkey and Europe in the near future.”
He further said the KRG remains committed to the contracts signed with oil and gas partners and is positioned to help other countries in the region.
“We in Kurdistan have the capacity now to make up for at least some of the shortfalls of oil in Europe if our partners in Baghdad prepared to work with us,” he added.
The Kurdistan Region’s massive untapped oil reserves, lucrative production-sharing contracts and safe environment has prompted international oil companies over recent years to commit to investing billions of dollars there.
But last month, Iraq’s federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that the KRG hand over their crude supplies.
Barzani called the move a “grave injustice.”
The KRG has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government, and in 2007 enacted its own law that established the directives by which the region would administer these resources.
Barzani said last month he explored Kurdistan’s “huge gas potential” in a meeting with Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi.
Teams from both governments also discussed energy investment, renewables, and regional energy cooperation, Barzani said on Twitter.
