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| Iraq |
| Oil row boils over as Baghdad 'refuses' KRG's full share |
| 2015-05-09 |
| [RUDAW.NET] Iraq's central government has refused to send the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s share of oil revenue for the month of April which were previously agreed to, sources told Rudaw on Thursday. "Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi will not approve a payment which equals the total amount of oil sold by the KRG at the Turkish Ceyhan port last month," the source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The source said Baghdad will not include the export of oil from Kirkuk's fields into the KRG's share of the total revenue, deepening a long-standing disagreement between Erbil and Baghdad. The governments reached a groundbreaking agreement in December last year, which ended simmering disputes between the two governments over share of oil revenues. According to the deal, the KRG was obliged to export 550,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), including 300,000 bpd from Kirkuk's oil wells, in return of Kurdistan's 17 percent share of the total revenues. The sale would take place in the Turkish port of Ceyhan through Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). "PM Al-Abadi has authorized a payment of $543 million for the month of April which is less than the $856 million that the KRG expected for the same month," the source said. Rudaw has obtained documents from the Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources, which show the KRG exported 16.3 million barrels of oil in April through the Iraqi SOMO. Baghdad says it has only received 15.3 million, excluding the exported of oil from Kirkuk. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Brilliant! Arabs being arabic. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2015-05-09 01:18 |