Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development

[Anthea]

Iraq’s Vice President Khudayr al-Khuzaie has warned against any oil exports from the Kurdistan region without the central government’s consent.



Khuzaie said in an interview on Monday that any crude export without Bagdad’s agreement would cause a crisis and a conflict between Kurdistan and the central government.

He also stated that the Kurdistan Regional Government is aware that it could not export oil to foreign countries without Baghdad’s approval, saying that disputes related to oil sales could only be settled based on the Iraqi constitution.

Kurdistan’s plan to export crude to international markets via Turkey has been a bone of contention between the semi-autonomous region and Baghdad.

Under the Iraqi constitution, any oil contract must be approved by Baghdad and its revenues sent to the treasury.

Earlier this month, Nechirvan Idris Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq said that the deal between the KRG and Ankara to pump oil to Turkey was finalized.

Under the deal, a new pipeline will be opened to export oil from Kurdistan region to international markets through Turkey.

On November 27, Baghdad warned Ankara over the opening of a new oil export pipeline from the autonomous Kurdish region.

The Iraqi government “threatens in case this signature happens, bilateral relations between Baghdad and Ankara will be damaged severely,” said Ali al-Musawi, a top advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/10 ... il-export/

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proactive investors

City firm Investec reckons Kurdistan’s emerging oil and gas industry has reached an inflection point, with the completion of a regional pipeline and as exports are now imminent.



Analyst Brian Gallagher says, in a note, that as a result there has been a de-risking of regional valuations, and now the market is beginning to consider the possibility of mergers and acquisitions.

That said, Gallagher is not exactly bullish when it comes to Kurdistan based producer, and one of the few direct beneficiaries of exports, Genel Energy (LON:GENL), as the analyst reduced his recommendation to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’.

“We believe however that Genel’s valuation has also reached an inflexion point,” the analyst said in the note.

“A full unwind of discount rates under 10% is not a realistic scenario at this juncture in our view.

“Even if Kurdish crude can be exported to international markets, it is still located onshore in arguably the most heterogeneous ethnic and political region in the world and this must be factored into the Genel valuation.

“This holds regardless of whether the region opens up to full exports in the coming quarters.

“As a result, we believe that a discount rate range between 10-15% should be applied to Genel’s, admittedly high quality, asset base in Kurdistan, depending on regional risks at the time.”

Gallagher admits that at the bottom end of this discount range he values Genel some 22% higher than the current price, but, at 12.5% (the broker’s benchmark discount) he says the upside narrows down to 6%.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/com ... 64054.html

[Anthea]

Once an isolated, poverty- and war-stricken region of Iraq, Kurdistan has emerged as an influential oil power in the Middle East over the past few years. Shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, international oil companies including giants such as Exxon-Mobil, Total and Chevron arrived in this small autonomous region to exploit its abundant natural resources.



Last week, Kurdistan attracted more global attention from politicians and businessmen alike after Turkey agreed to enter a multi-billion oil and gas deal with it.

But there’s one problem: Kurdistan’s aggressive pursuit of an independent oil policy has infuriated Iraq’s central government in Baghdad, which considers all of the region’s hydrocarbon deals illegal.

Baghdad says it retains the sole authority over the country’s oil industry, and fears that independent moves by Kurdistan would end up in the demise of the country as a unified entity.

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Kurdistan rejects that claim saying that its oil policy benefits the whole of Iraq since the revenues will eventually be redistributed to all Iraqis.

What is the U.S.’s stance toward Kurdistan’s oil policy? Does it share Baghdad’s fears that Kurdistan’s increasingly independent economy leads to the emergence of an independent Kurdish state?

Joining me to discuss this subject is: - Joshua Walker, a writer who has recently written an extensive report on Turkey-KRG relations. He’s also the president of Global Programs at APCO Worldwide.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/111220131

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Business News

ERBIL, Iraq, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The thorny dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan's oil riches is likely to heat up in the weeks ahead, aggravating tensions in a flashpoint region at a time when al-Qaida bombers are wreaking havoc across the country spurred by the civil war raging in next-door Syria.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in the Kurdish enclave that spans three provinces in northern Iraq wants to export its oil and natural gas to neighboring Turkey through pipelines to be built by Ankara.

Iraq's federal government in Baghdad refuses to allow that and insists that the oil in question belongs to the state, and if it's shipped north to Turkey should flow through state-controlled pipelines running from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan.

A few weeks ago, it looked like the KRG, headquartered in the city of Erbil, and Ankara had after months of discreet negotiations reached a secretive agreement on pumping Kurdish oil to Turkey via a pipeline with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day controlled by Baghdad starting in December.

It would also give Ankara a big stake in several oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan through a new state entity, the Turkish Energy Co.

Kurdistan has been exporting 30,000-50,000 bpd to Turkey by truck for months, but with new pipelines to the north KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said Nov. 20 Erbil planned to supply 1 million bpd by 2015, rising to 2 million bpd by 2019.

KRG Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani said oil could be flowing via the pipeline "before Christmas," a move that would have wide geopolitical consequences and would redraw the energy map of the Middle East.

Then on Dec. 4, Barzani confessed Erbil and Baghdad were unable to reach agreement and dismissed tripartite negotiations as proposed by Ankara. Baghdad made clear it would not play ball on a deal it deemed "illegal."

"Now the agreement's been openly proclaimed by the parties, doubts are growing about how, when and even if it will enter into force," observed regional analyst Daniel Dombey in Istanbul.

"Ankara now says the future of the agreement is up to Baghdad and Erbil."

A KRG export operation, independent of Baghdad, would cut Iraq's oil exports, which provide the revenue for national reconstruction after four decades of war, insurrection, economic sanctions and neglect.

But there are strategic political reasons behind Baghdad's stonewalling: KRG-controlled oil exports would greatly spur Kurdish efforts to eventually establish an independent state that could threaten the collapse of a multi-ethnic Iraq while the Middle East is convulsed by political and religious turmoil.

The Kurds already behave as if they have a sovereign state. They have their own government, flag and military forces, and a prospective energy deal with Turkey would make them economically independent of Baghdad, which under Saddam Hussein waged a near-genocidal campaign to crush them and their aspirations of statehood.

The United States is aghast at the idea of Iraq breaking up and has sought, in vain, to prevent the Kurds setting up their own oil industry, separate from Iraq's, with major players like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total of France and Gazprom Neft of Russia.

Indeed, U.S. officials in Baghdad say Kurdish oil flowing into Turkey could be the greatest threat to Iraq's cohesion, and that by alienating Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the the Sunni Kurds, and Sunni majority Turkey, could push Iraq closer to Iran.

Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own and is stuck with an annual energy import bill of $50 billion, is desperate to get access to the Kurds' oil reserves, estimated at 45 billion barrels, and natural gas holdings of at least 106 trillion cubic feet.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to exploit Turkey's location between Europe and Asia to become the main energy hub for oil and gas flowing from Russia, the Caspian Basin, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Now he's seeking peace with Turkey's own Kurdish separatists to end a 29-year-old insurgency, he feels confident enough to deal with Iraq's independence-minded Kurds, setting aside past conflicts to pursue a mutually beneficial partnership.

Erdogan "hopes to use a closer relationship with the Iraqi Kurdish government to facilitate peace negotiations with Kurds in Turkey," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor observed.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... t=rln&or=3

[Anthea]

gulfnews.com

The sharp, dry mountains that run between Turkey and Iraq have long marked a front line in the battle between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists where cross-border attacks took many lives on both sides. Though a rapprochement has calmed the border, the United States fears stability may now be in even greater danger.



The problem is not war but commerce. Iraqi Kurds are selling oil and natural gas directly to Turkey, infuriating Washington and the central government in Baghdad, who fear that oil independence could lead Kurds to declare a broad independence and the fracturing of the nation.

Even as sectarian killing is again spiking across Iraq, and the Syrian civil war destabilises the region, American officials in Baghdad say the flow of oil to Turkey may be the greatest potential risk to Iraq’s cohesion.

Not only will trucks continue to travel daily from the Kurdish region to two Turkish cities on the Mediterranean coast, and not only will the Kurds continue to deliver oil via a pipeline to Turkey, but the parties plan to build a second pipeline, whose details have been kept secret.

“The Kurdistan deal with Turkey is a huge violation against the Iraqi Constitution, because they didn’t make the deal with the coordination of the central government,” said Ali Dhari, the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s oil and gas committee. “This means the stealing of the Iraqi wealth, and we will not allow it.”

The oil accords with Turkey, potentially worth billions of dollars, are part of a broader effort by Iraqi Kurds in recent years to cut their own energy deals — including exploration agreements with foreign companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Gazprom — that sidelined the central government.

The Kurds, and the Turks, say they will pay Baghdad its fair share. But officials in the capital have long claimed such arrangements are illegal.

The controversy is in part the unfinished business of the US occupation of Iraq. The failure of the Iraqi government to pass a national oil law, one of the benchmarks set by President George W. Bush when he announced the US troop ‘surge’ in 2007, has left Baghdad and Arbil, the Kurdish capital, in a perpetual feud over how to divide profits and who has the authority to make agreements with international oil companies.

Qasim Mishkhati, a Kurdish member of the oil and gas committee, insisted that the wealth from the deals would be shared with the rest of Iraq, and that it was the responsibility of the regional government in the north to find international markets for its oil resources. “Kurdistan is working to increase the national income so that all Iraqis can enjoy better services and more wealth,” he said.

Although the mechanism for such payments has not been worked out, the Turks and the Kurds have indicated that they would adhere to the existing proportions for the division of national revenue, meaning Baghdad would receive 83 per cent of the net profit and the Kurds would keep 17 per cent.

But the alarm in Baghdad and Washington has grown with these oil deals, which appear to be part of a slow, long-term strategy by the Iraqi Kurds to pursue a path of increasing autonomy that experts say has one endgame: an independent Kurdish state.



Decisive steps

Tens of millions of Kurds live in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, and they have long held ambitions for independence that for decades have been thwarted. Now, amid the turmoil of the Middle East, Kurdish leaders are taking decisive steps to advance that dream, not just in Iraq, but also in Syria, where Kurdish factions recently declared an autonomous administration in the north-east.

But the deals also highlight the drastic reshaping of regional alliances in the past few years. In 2003 Turkey, worried that the US invasion of Iraq would promote Kurdish independence, forbade US troops to use its territory to enter Iraq.

But now Turkey is in the process of making peace with its own Kurds, who have waged a three-decade insurgency against the state with bases in Iraq. In a region where Turkey has few allies these days, the Iraqi Kurds, who run their own autonomous, and relatively prosperous, region in the north have become close partners.

“There has been a rapprochement between Ankara and Baghdad, but what I see in the energy policy of Turkey relating to Kurdistan still seems to be a fly in the ointment for the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad,” said Badr H. Jafar, the chairman of the Pearl Petroleum consortium, the largest private oil and gas investor in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey, though, has said it will ensure that the government in Baghdad will be paid for any oil it imports from Kurdistan in accordance with Iraq’s revenue-sharing arrangement.

“If done correctly, these deals have the potential to generate huge revenues for Iraq, distributed by the Iraqi government in accordance with the Iraqi Constitution and for the ultimate benefit of the Iraqi people, including of course, the Kurdish region,” Jafar said.

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/te ... -1.1266760

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— A government official told Rudaw that on Friday, the Kurdistan Region started exporting oil and gas to Turkey based on an agreement signed between Erbil and Ankara last month.



According to the government official, 50 percent of the export is purchased by Turkey and the remaining 50 percent will be sent to the world market.

During an official visit to Turkey last month, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani signed an agreement with Ankara that would allow Kurdistan’s oil to reach the world market via Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Kurdish officials expect around 400,000 barrels of oil per day to go through the new pipeline by the end of 2014.

Baghdad had initially voiced concerns about Kurdistan’s oil agreement with Ankara, saying that only the central government has the authority to export the country’s oil.

However, at an Oil and Gas conference in Erbil earlier this month, Prime Minister Barzani said, “Our deal is a great victory for Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. This process is bringing both sides together and we should reach a mechanism with our Iraqi partners to share the revenue according to the constitution.”

“The Kurds will not backtrack and our agreement with Turkey isn’t a threat to anyone,” Barzani said.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/131220131

[Anthea]

Test flows in Iraqi Kurdistan's new crude pipeline via Turkey started on Friday, but no exports have yet been scheduled, according to reports over the weekend.



Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a multi-billion-dollar energy package in late November, infuriating Baghdad which claims sole authority over oil exports and is wary of any move that could extend political autonomy in the region.

Turkey has lobbied hard to have Baghdad, which claims any oil deals the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has signed are illegal, on board but so far the central government has not shown any signs of stepping back, Reuters reported.

"These are the test flows in limited amounts," the news agency quoted an unnamed industry source as saying.

"The volumes are not high enough yet to say exports have started.”

He added that it showed both Turkey and the KRG were on track to implement the multi-billion dollar oil and gas deals they signed last month.

"Turkey has repeatedly showed that it wants a comprehensive agreement that includes Baghdad as well, but it has also said it will stand by its agreement with the Kurds," Reuters quoted the source as saying.

The Turkish-KRG deal has enormous significance for major oil companies as well as for the Kurds and Turkey, which can benefit in domestic supply and onward westward export through the mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

Baghdad says it has sole authority over Iraqi oil exports, while the KRG says it has the right to sell the oil independently and has recently built its own pipeline to export crude to Turkey.

Turkey, which is heavily dependent on imports to satisfy its growing appetite for energy, wants Iraqi Kurdistan's oil to help diversify its energy supplies.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article1346630.ece

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As the Kurdistan Region continues to boom and job opportunities increase, the coming years will see a shortage of local skilled workers if more steps are not taken to increase local workforce capability.


The scholarship program was developed as part of Marathon’s commitment to the development of the Kurdistan Region through the company’s Corporate 0Social Responsibility (CSR) Program.

In recognition of this, and as an investment in the future of both Kurdistan and its oil and gas industry, the Kurdistan Merit Scholarship Program was established this year by Marathon Oil, a US-based international and independent company and its partner, Total, along with the Kurdistan Ministry of Natural Resources.

The scholarship provides financial support for up to seven high school students from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to pursue studies in petroleum-related fields at Texas A&M University, which is world-renowned for excellence in the field. The first group of students to receive the scholarship will commence studies in mid-January 2014.

“It’s the first scholarship program of its kind in Kurdistan for undergraduate study abroad,” said Adel Chaouch, Marathon’s president and general manager in Kurdistan.

He said the scholarship was established to give high school students from Kurdistan the opportunity to study abroad, with the intention the students will return to Kurdistan and become tomorrow’s leaders in the oil and gas industry.

The scholarship program was developed as part of Marathon’s commitment to the development of the Kurdistan Region through the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program.

CSR initiatives are based on a company’s beliefs that it is responsible for its actions socially, ethically and environmentally wherever it operates. Initiatives usually cover education, health, environmental stewardship, human rights support and civil society building.

Marathon established a similar scholarship program in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 and following that, in Gabon in 2005, both of which have been very successful.

The blueprint of the program was brought to Kurdistan from West Africa and was shaped to fit the local context.

An extensive media campaign was broadcast on television and radio across Iraqi Kurdistan, advertising the Merit Scholarship program to potential students.

As part of the program, students will gain hands-on experience during summer field internships with Marathon.

While the internships may be in the Kurdistan Region, Chaouch said it is just as likely they could be in Marathon’s other areas of operations in Africa, Europe or North America.

Based on their academic merits, students will study geology, geophysics or one of five engineering disciplines – petroleum, mechanical, civil, electrical or chemical and processing.

Marathon provides logistical support for the scholarship program, but Texas A&M is entirely responsible for the screening, interviewing and selection of students.

To be eligible for the scholarship program students must have demonstrated excellent academic performance by scoring at least 90 or above in their Grade 6 final exam and be slated to graduate from a high school in Kurdistan in the year of application. They also must be interested in studying an oil and gas discipline at Teaxs A&M and not be married.

As students first undertake at least six months of intensive English as a Second Language Training, knowing English is not a pre-requisite to be eligible for the program.

Ian McIntosh, technical advisor to the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources, noted that as the oil and gas industry in Kurdistan matures, companies do not want to rely on expatriate staff. Their goal is to employ more skilled Kurds, and getting students interested in the industry and studying the right programs is a vital step in this goal being realized.

Chaouch said Marathon’s recent discovery of oil and gas confirms they will have a continuous presence in the region in the coming years.

“As we expand our operations in the coming years, we’ll be looking for talented Kurdish students who can quickly grow to be leaders,” he said.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/161220131

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ERBIL, Iraq, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish enclave has reportedly started pumping oil direct to neighboring Turkey via a new pipeline even though Baghdad has not approved the landmark deal between the Kurds and Ankara, raising concerns of a new clash with Baghdad.

But the Financial Times said Baghdad is expected to endorse the pipeline deal in negotiations now under way with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil and the Turkish government, a project that will have important geopolitical consequences for the region.

The Iraq Oil Report, a website that monitors Iraq's energy industry, reported the oil flow which began a week ago is primarily to test the pipeline. But it stressed this is "a significant step toward Kurdistan's first independent pipeline exports."

The Financial Times said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government will likely secure 83 percent of revenues generated by KRG exports with the Kurds getting 17 percent, a split Baghdad has apparently endorsed.

The Kurds' share may seem risible but the KRG can expect to earn billions of dollars in revenue from the oil and gas exports to Turkey that are likely to follow, along with significant investment that will provide a strong economic base for a future independent state.

Maliki fears once Kurdistan establishes a firm economic base, the Kurds will declare independence, which would in turn encourage other restive regions to break away from Baghdad's control.

Baghdad's worst nightmare is that south Iraq, where more than 60 percent of Iraq's oil reserves of 144 billion barrels is located, would seek greater autonomy, critically weakening central government

The new pipeline will have the capacity to carry 1 million barrels per day to world markets via Turkey's Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan. The initial Kurdish target is about 300,000 bpd. A second oil line is planned.

Kurdistan contains oil reserves estimated at 45 billion barrels, about the volume Britain has pumped from the North Sea since the 1970s, plus gas reserves of around 110 trillion cubic feet. Iraq's overall oil reserves, including those in Kurdistan, total 144 billion barrels.

Erbil, despite Baghdad's protestations, has signed exploration and production deals with several major oil companies, including U.S. oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp., Gazprom Neft of Russia and Total of France.

But the new pipeline will be used to carry oil from fields operated Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy, based in Ankara and headed by former BP chief Tony Hayward, and Norway's DNO, which pioneered drilling in Kurdistan.

Genel recently listed its gas reserves in the Miran and Bina Bawi fields at 8 trillion to 18 trillion cubic feet, double earlier estimates.

Eventually, Kurdistan could be exporting 353 billion cubic feet of gas a year to Turkey through the emerging pipeline network.

There's been a lot of confusion of late regarding the $500 million pipeline operation, the first component of a network envisioned by Turkey and the KRG, and whether it would ever get under way because of Baghdad's insistence it has sole authority on energy issues.

Turkey and Erbil reportedly signed a multi-billion-dollar pipeline agreement in November, but few details have yet emerged.

The Financial Times said that the Turks have sought to downplay the significance of the new oil flow, with Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, a key figure in the pipeline plan, describing the pumping as "a test flow ... the testing will continue for a while."

"Ankara, the KRG and energy groups active in Northern Iraq have long argued that the emerging infrastructure will ultimately lead Baghdad to accede to the network of deals concerning the oil and gas that will flow into the new pipelines," said analyst Daniel Dombey, based in Istanbul.

Baghdad and the KRG have feuded bitterly for years over the Kurds' plans to independently export their oil and gas to Turkey, which is driving to become the most important energy hub between Europe and the oil and gas riches of Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Turkey has no energy resources of its own, so it is seeking deals that will guarantee it supplies of oil and gas.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... 387470215/

[Anthea]

BAGHDAD, Iraq – With rows over the current year’s budget still unresolved between Baghdad and Erbil, tensions run high as Kurdish and Arab lawmakers lock horns over next year’s allocation by the central government for the autonomous northern enclave. Some of the same rows have spilled into the latest debates.



Baghdad accuses the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of failing to account for 106 million barrels of oil allegedly exported directly by the Kurds, it refuses to pay for foreign firms involved in oil projects in Kurdistan and has withheld pay for the Kurdish Peshmarga forces that are controlled by Erbil but are constitutionally part of the armed forces.

KRG officials claim they have never received the full 17 percent of their constitutional share of the budget. Baghdad refuses to pay for oil companies working in the enclave, on grounds the contracts should have gone through the central government in Baghdad.

"Two reasons have delayed the approval of the 2014 Iraq budget,” said Heissam Jiburi, lawmaker from the State of Law Coalition, which is led by the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. “One is the budget deficit, which is 30 percent, and the other is the dispute between Erbil and Baghdad that includes the Kurdistan Region's oil revenues and budget for Peshmarga forces."

The Iraqi national budget for 2014 is estimated at some 174 trillion Iraqi dinars (ID), with the deficit expected at 27 trillion ID.

Jiburi contends that the revenue from millions of barrels of oil from Kurdistan remains unaccounted for, based on data from the Board of Supreme Audit in Baghdad. He says that Kurdish officials are not ready to deal with the board, on grounds that the issue has been politicized.

Rashid Tahir, the KRG’s deputy minister of finance, explained that the reason for refusing to work with data from the board is because their numbers are wrong. He said that the central government must obtain the correct numbers from the Kurds themselves.

"They have to cooperate with the KRG Board of Audit and see that data before speaking about the revenues," he advised.

Another lawmaker from the State of Law Coalition took a harsher position against the KRG, suggesting that the Kurdistan Region should be cut from the national budget altogether, in order to force Erbil to submit all revenues from oil exports.

“Baghdad must cut the KRG’s budget until Erbil sends us all of its revenues from oil exported from Kurdistan in the last two years,” said MP Alia Nusaif. “This is a technical demand and there is no political agenda behind it,” she claimed.

She said that according to article 111 of the Iraqi constitution, the Kurdistan Region must submit all oil revenues to Baghdad.

According to Nusaif, most Iraqi lawmakers agree on cutting the KRG from the national budget altogether.

Meanwhile, Kurdish lawmakers appear to have dug in for a harsh fight over the budget, which has become an annual showdown between Baghdad and Erbil.

The row is fueled even more this year by direct oil exports which began this month from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey.

The rows over the 2013 budget led to a walkout by Kurdish lawmakers in the Iraqi parliament.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/20122013

[Anthea]

Crude oil test flows via Iraqi Kurdistan's new pipeline reached Turkish port. Crude oil test flows via Iraqi Kurdistan's new pipeline have reached Turkey's Mediterranean export hub of Ceyhan and the pipeline is expected to be operational soon, Turkey's Energy Minister said on Monday.



"The (operational) flows will be starting after this," Taner Yildiz told reporters, adding that the start-up date will be discussed next week.

Turkey has agreed with Iraqi Kurdistan on a comprehensive package of oil and gas deals, which will see the rich hydrocarbon resources of the semi-autonomous region independently exported to world markets via Turkey.

The move infuriated Baghdad, which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil, but Turkey has been working to have the central government on board before the exports start.

Yildiz visited Baghdad in early December to have talks with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani,www.Ekurd.net who has long opposed Turkey's courtship of Kurds.

"I believe this crude will flow via Turkey based on our talks with Shahristani in Baghdad," he said.

Iraqi Kurdistan officials have said repeatedly that the pipeline built by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is complete and should be operational this month.

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The delegation of Kurdistan Region Government had arrived the capital Baghdad.

A high-ranking delegation headed by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had arrived the capital Baghdad for talks regarding oil and budget issues.

Barzani shall meet with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki later this day and the KRG delegation shall hold a meeting with Baghdad delegation to discuss oil issue as well for the general budget of 2014.

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Iraq's Shahristani and Kurdistan PM Barzani reach agreement over exporting Kurdistan oil via SOMO 26.12.2013

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani agreed with Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to resolve the outstanding issues concerning the issue of the export of oil from Kurdistan region via the new Kurdish independent pipeline through Turkey, National Iraqi News reported.

A statement by the Shahristani office said that the two sides agreed on the need to be exporting oil produced in Kurdistan region by Iraq State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) in accordance with the mechanisms in place to export and pricing of Iraqi oil, and to deposit revenues in the Development Fund for Iraq in New York and distributed in accordance with the annual budget share.

“Shihristani received the Kurdish delegation in Baghdad on last Wednesday,” noting that “Iraqi oil minister Abdul Kareem Laeebi,www.Ekurd.net and the Acting Minister of Finance, Safa al-Din al-Safi, attended the meeting.” the statement added.

“Both sides agreed upon exporting Kurdistan Region oil through SOMO according to the adopted mechanism of exporting and pricing Iraqi oil,” the statement continued.

“The revenues will be submitted to the Development Fund of Iraq to be distributed later via financial budget,” the statement concluded.



Turkey has agreed with Iraqi Kurdistan on a comprehensive package of oil and gas deals, which will see the rich hydrocarbon resources of the autonomous Kurdistan region independently exported to world markets via Turkey.

The move infuriated Baghdad, which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil, but Turkey has been working to have the central government on board before the exports start.

Crude oil test flows via Iraqi Kurdistan's new pipeline have reached Turkey's Mediterranean export hub of Ceyhan and the pipeline is expected to be operational soon, Turkey's Energy Minister said on Monday.

Iraqi Kurdistan officials have said repeatedly that the independent pipeline built by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is complete and should be operational soon.

Meanwhile Ali al-Moussawi, the media adviser of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the meetings of the technical committees between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG will be held after the New Year's holidays.

Maliki's Information Office said in a press statement that: "The talks between the two sides focused on ways to solve the problems between the province and the federal government about the Iraqi budget and oil revenues from Kurdistan region."

Nechirvan Barzani had arrived Wednesday to Baghdad and met during the visit, both the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq Ammar al-Hakim.

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/mi ... vt2242.htm

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Dr. Bewar Khansi, Economic Security Consultant of the KRG, announces that “in 2016, two more oil-export pipes will tie Kurdistan Region to Turkey.” The consultant, moreover, points out, “Although current data suggests that Kurdistan Region has 45 billion barrels reserve of oil, but the real amount bypasses this number.”



Khansi relates the insufficiency of data regarding Kurdistan Region`s reserve of oil to the incompetent data collected trough the digging done by foreign oil companies and corporations in Kurdistan Region.

Consultant Khansi, furthermore adds, “if the currently “disputed upon” places are to be linked to Kurdistan Region, the rate of oil production and oil reserve will boost double to the amount thought to be now.”

Bewar Khansi supports his notions by equipping that if the oil companies dig to a more distant point and if their work widens to include the all 46 fields of oil –not only 14- present in Kurdistan Region, then it will be evident that Kurdistan Region has 60 billion barrels of oil reserve.

“Kurdistan Region is also rich in natural gas. With an estimated 3-6 billion cubic meter of natural gas, it will no doubt affect Europe`s natural gas supply through Naboko Pipe,” states Khansi.

These statements come after last Wednesday PM Nechirvan Barzani was received by PM Nuri Al-Maliki in Baghdad. Later, both prime ministers announced that they have reached an agreement regarding the subject.

http://www.pukmedia.com/EN/EN_Direje.aspx?Jimare=16799

[Anthea]

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Baghdad and Erbil have agreed on accumulation of Kurdistan oil revenues in an account, which was opened in US bank JPMorgan, despite Ankara’s insistence on depositing the money in Turkish state-run lender Halkbank, according to media reports quoting sources



Revenues from Kurdish oil, which is to be exported to world markets via Turkey, will be deposited in a New York-based bank account of the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI), sources have said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani reached a resolution in Baghdad over their differences on oil exports on Dec. 25, Anadolu Agency reported.

The deal stipulates that oil revenues from Kurdistan region will go to the DFI account which was created at JPMorgan Chase in New York in 2003 at the request of the United Nations, instead of Turkish state-owned lender Halkbank.

Kurdistan government has backed down from using Turkey’s Halkbank as a mediator for transfers in a deal made for oil exports with Turkey. Halkbank was targeted in a police operation earlier this month after being accused of breaching international sanctions against Iran. After months of secretive graft probes,www.Ekurd.net Turkish police on December 17 detained dozens of people, among them the sons of three Turkish ministers and the head of state-run Halkbank, after being accused of corruption.

Barzani broached the issue of depositing the oil money in a U.S. lender during a visit to Ankara at the end of November.

According to a statement from the office of al-Maliki’s deputy for energy, Hussein Shahristani, both sides agreed to export Kurdistan oil through the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), the company responsible for marketing Iraq’s oil.

Meanwhile, al-Maliki’s media adviser, Ali Musawi, said the two parties had reached a consensus on establishing a committee for the resolution of problems between the two governments and that the committee would convene at the end of 2014 to end the issues.

The revenues will later be distributed to the relevant parties via Iraq’s central budget, the statement said.

Hasan Özmen, a parliament for Diyala province, told Anadolu Agency that the revenue from the oil which is to be exported via Turkey through a newly finished pipeline would also be deposited in the DFI account.

Özmen said the account was originally established to ensure the equal distribution of revenues.

Turkey recently signed an agreement with the KRG for the establishment of a separate 300,000-barrel capacity pipeline.

On Dec. 23, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said test flows for Kurdistan oil had been completed up to Ceyhan, a coastal district in the Mediterranean province of Adana, adding that the oil would begin to flow after the tests.

Until recently, Baghdad had expressed its explicit opposition to the autonomous Kurdistan’s direct oil deals with foreign companies and the export of Kurdish oil and gas to Turkey.

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