SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on Monday that a request to hand over the dossier of oil to the federal government is “unconstitutional”, but expressed readiness to export 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources released a statement in response to comments made by Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar in an interview with state TV last week.
The KRG ministry said the Kurdistan Region has the right to export and sell oil according to the Iraqi constitution.
“So, requesting to hand over the oil dossier of the Kurdistan Region is an unconstitutional request,” the ministry stated.
“But we have also expressed readiness to hand over 250,000 bpd to the federal government in exchange for the Region’s rights and financial entitlements,” it said.
The Kurdish ministry further said the Kurdistan Region is ready to resolve issues with Baghdad according to the constitution and reach an agreement which is in the interest of Iraqis.
Regarding the KRG’s commitment to the OPEC+ deal, the ministry of natural resources said it had been committed to the amount set for the Kurdistan Region to cut.
“According to the Kurdistan Region’s rate in the federal budget, which is 12.67%, the Region should have produced 600,000 out of 5 million barrels of Iraq’s oil output, but the Region produces 450,000 barrels. It means the Kurdistan Region produces lesser than its share,” the ministry said.
“The one which has produced more than its share is Iraq, not the Region. The federal government needs to cut its production, not asking the Region to do so,” it added.
“The Kurdistan Region has cut 30,000 barrels from its output in an effort to participate in the production cut.”
On Thursday, the Iraqi oil minister said in an interview with state TV that non-commitment of the Kurdistan Region to its share of the production cut was the main reason of reaching a recent low compliance of 79% of pledged cuts under the OPEC+ deal.
“We reached an initial agreement with Kurdish region to cut their production by 20 percent or around 80,000 barrels per day but they didn’t commit and kept production at 430,000 barrels,” he said.
OPEC+ cut supply by a record 9.7 million bpd last year and is pumping an extra 500,000 bpd in January under a plan to unwind the curbs gradually. Most producers will hold steady in February and Saudi Arabia is cutting output by 1 million bpd next month and March.
