Government officials from Iraq’s Federal oil ministry and their counterparts at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) met twice this week on 11 and 12 March with the hopes of reaching a resolution to major disagreements preventing reaching a deal to resume oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline. But MEES is told that there was no progress in either committee meeting, and it remains unclear when coming meetings will be held.
After marathon talks earlier this month which for the first time included executives from IOCs producing in Kurdistan after Iraq’s parliament passed an amendment to the country’s budget increasing an envisaged per-barrel fee for handing over oil production from $6.90/B to $16/B (MEES, 7 March), the two governments had agreed to form two committees. One to discuss the scope of work for a consultant brought to assess production costs at Kurdish oilfields, and another ‘technical committee’ focused on determining volumes to be exported and locally sold, and agreeing a mutually-acceptable payment mechanism. (CONTINUED - 411 WORDS)
