Iraq’s parliament on 2 February passed an amendment to the country’s Federal budget which increases the envisaged fixed per-barrel fee to Kurdistan-based IOCs from $6.90/B to $16/B. This is a crucial first step towards the potential restart of oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) which has been shut since 2023 (MEES, 31 March 2023). The amendment, which was obstructed by anti-Kurdistan MPs last month (MEES, 31 January), was welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the central government and the oil companies with production in Kurdistan.
Iraq’s oil minister, Hayan Abdulghani, says his ministry has sent a letter to the KRG demanding that it “properly hands over oil to state marketer Somo,” adding that Iraq will coordinate with Turkey to prepare the ITP for exports. Mr Abdulghani expects the KRG to pump all current production of “no less than” 300,000 b/d into the pipeline. The budget legally mandates that Kurdistan hands over 400,000 b/d, in line with pre-shut in levels, but it’s unclear how long it would take to restore output to that level from approximately 300,000 b/d currently. (CONTINUED - 907 WORDS)
