Oil companies operating in Kurdistan express their willingness to enter into talks to resume oil exp

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[size=52]Oil companies operating in Kurdistan express their willingness to enter into talks to resume oil exports from the region[/size]

[size=45]The Kurdistan Oil Industry Association (APICOR), which represents foreign oil companies operating in the Iraqi region, announced its readiness to immediately enter into talks with the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government regarding the resumption of oil exports.[/size]
[size=45]Apicor also said that it would demand guarantees for the payment of financial and past dues “in accordance with previous agreements.”[/size]
[size=45]Abikor added in a statement, “We appreciate US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani’s confirmation of the rapid resumption of oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline.”[/size]
[size=45]During their meeting in Washington yesterday, Monday, Biden and Al-Sudani stressed the need to ensure the access of Iraqi oil to international markets, and expressed their desire to restart the pipeline between Iraq and Turkey.[/size]
[size=45]The oil pipeline between Iraq and Turkey remains suspended after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Turkey violated the terms of the 1973 agreement by facilitating oil exports from the Kurdistan region without the approval of the federal government in Baghdad between 2014 and 2018.[/size]
[size=45]After the International Chamber of Commerce ruling, Turkey stopped oil exports amounting to 450,000 barrels per day from northern Iraq via the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in March last year. The pipeline was also transporting approximately 75,000 barrels per day of federal government oil from Kirkuk fields.[/size]
[size=45]Economist Adel Al-Ghazi said, “The cost of producing a barrel of oil demanded by oil companies in the region is higher than the cost of production in the fields of the rest of the governorates, reaching $24, while all rounds of oil licensing in the other governorates do not exceed ten dollars.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The General Budget Law adopted a unified pricing for production, which is the prevailing one in licensing rounds.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi government reached an agreement with the Kurdistan region in April of last year to export 400,000 barrels of oil per day through the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company (SOMO), and to form a committee to supervise the sale of oil in global markets. However, the Iraqi Ministries of Oil and Finance confirmed that the Kurdistan region SOMO has not delivered any oil yet.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Ghazi said, “The Federal Ministry of Oil repeatedly announced that foreign oil companies operating in the region, and through more than one meeting with them, did not hand over to the federal government copies of their contracts concluded with the regional government, which made it impossible to negotiate anything with them.”[/size]
[size=45]He continued, saying, “All that the regional government announces about the contracts is that they are contracts for participation in production, while all other companies’ contracts in the country are service contracts for each barrel that is extracted.”[/size]
[size=45]Oil contracts in the region differ from their counterparts in other Iraqi provinces, as they are production partnership contracts with oil companies in light of the region not having its own national company, while other contracts are service contracts. Oil pipelines are owned by the Federal Ministry of Oil, while the Kurdistan region does not have a pipeline, and is currently using a link linking the region's fields to the federal line transporting to Turkey.[/size]
[size=45]The Federal General Budget Law 2023-2025 set the cost of producing and transporting each barrel of oil at $6.9, while data from the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Region show that the costs of oil production in the region amount to $32.91, with $24.32 for producing one barrel of oil and $8.95. For transportation and export.[/size]
[size=45]In 2022, the Federal Court in Iraq ruled that the oil and gas law regulating the industry in the Kurdistan region was unconstitutional. The Federal Oil Ministry said last month that foreign companies operating in the Kurdistan region and the Kurdish authorities have not yet submitted their contracts to the ministry for review and issuance of new contracts that comply with the constitution.[/size]
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