Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development

[Anthea]

Norway's DNO oil firm to build second pipeline to export oil out of it's Tawke field in Kurdistan

[Anthea]

Kurdistan says Baghdad's request to export our oil through SOMO make us under its mercy

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) confirmed that the Baghdad requirement for SOMO to supervise the export of the region 's oil revenue and deposit at the American Central Bank DFN makes Kurdistan under the mercy of the federal government, citing that the federal government did not send dues of staff to the region.

The spokesman of KRG, Safeen Dizayee told al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, that positive changes were observed in the position of the Federal Government regarding the outstanding issues, with the exception of what Baghdad is insisting on about the oil file which is one of the most important problems still suspended between the two parties.

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for energy Hussain al-Shahristani said Wednesday that Kurdistan has agreed to export crude via the country's main oil marketing body, potentially removing a major sticking pointwww.Ekurd.net in a resource row with the central government. "After hours of meetings, we have agreed that our brothers in the region will be represented in SOMO and agreed that this is the sole national outlet responsible for exporting oil," Shahristani said.

He added that Baghdad had no objection to export the region 's oil, but stipulated the supervision of SOMO government Company on the export mechanism of sales and revenues and deposit them in DFN bank and then U.S. Federal Ministry of Finance sends the region's share.

Dizayee considered Baghdad’s request as "making Kurdistan region under its mercy on the evidence that they didn’t send the regions’ staff entitlements of salaries and allowances,", adding that “KRG does not object the partnership between the two sides in all fields of oil extraction until selling it.

Dizayee said that the Kurdish party put a condition to deposit the Kurdistan region's share of the proceeds to the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) in the region and that KRG to be free to dispose its share of the revenue after the ratification of its general budget in the Parliament of the region, noting that this point is the only one that has been left.

On Baghdad 's rejection to pay the salaries to Kurdistan region’s staff, Dizayee considered this step as clear violation of the constitution and the law, pointing out that " Baghdad is using this issue as a pressure point on the region."

Dizayee did not rule out that " this act came in order to satisfy the masses of influential parties in the government because of the proximity of the Iraqi parliaments’ elections."

Dizayee revealed that the Prime Minister of the region, Nechirvan Barzani insisted on Baghdad that this action was "unjustified, unacceptable and will not be accepted by the people of Kurdistan to be at the mercy of anyone and asked them to review themselves on this subject and not to manipulate the citizens for political gains."

Dizayee criticized some Iraqi politicians who " still think with the strong and weak logic," stressing that " many of them must thank the region because it provides economic ground fertile for Iraq in terms of security and stability, but served them personally and many of them settled with their families in the provinces of the region away from the unstable security and terrorism in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. "

He pointed out that " most of the officials and politicians in Baghdad, attend to work for five days, or less, per week and spend the weekend in the region."

The head of KRG, Nechirvan Barzani has led a senior delegation from the region to visit Baghdad on Monday and held meetings with Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki and other senior officials in his government to discuss ways of finding solutions to the disputes between Baghdad and Erbil on files of budget, oil and Peshmerga, without reaching an agreement to end those files so far.

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/mi ... te7763.htm

[Anthea]

Oil Search provides an update on the Taza 2 well

Oil Search reports that at 06:00 hours KRI time on 19 February 2014, the Taza 2 well was at a depth of 1,807 metres and drilling ahead in a 17-1/2' hole. Drilling progress for the week was 456 metres.

Taza 2 is located 10 kilometres north-west of Taza 1 and will appraise the hydrocarbon-bearing intervals discovered by Taza 1 (Dhiban/Jeribe and Euphrates/Kirkuk Formations), as well as explore deeper Tertiary and Cretaceous targets including the Shiranish Formation.

The participants in Taza 2 are:

Oil Search (Iraq) Limited* - 60%
Total E&P Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Taza) B.V. - 20%
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - 20%

* Oil Search's funding interest is 75%, with the KRG's 20% interest carried by Oil Search and Total E&P Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Taza) B.V.

http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Oil_Search_pr ... 91391.aspx

[Anthea]

Saudi Gazette

Baghdad, Erbil at loggerheads over Kurdistan oil

BAGHDAD and Erbil are locked in a battle of nerves. At stake are the control of the energy riches of the landlocked Kurdistan - striving hard to wriggle out of Baghdad’s grip. The region is oil rich. With a federal structure, the issue of who keeps the reins of these riches is of paramount importance. The issue under the hammer is who controls the taps and the proceeds from Kurd oil - the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) or the central government in Baghdad?

KOMO or SOMO?

Erbil has been insisting, all these months on a central, somewhat independent role, for its Kurdistan Oil Marketing Company (KOMO) in marketing its crude, whereas, Baghdad wanted the selling process to be under the firm control of the central government’s State Oil Marketing Corporation (SOMO).

The issue needed an urgent resolution, both sides know and realize. In a bid to reach a negotiated settlement to the long-running dispute over exports of oil from Kurdistan via a new independent pipeline to Turkey, the autonomous region’s prime minister and top energy official has been traveling frequently to Baghdad and also Ankara - in recent weeks.

And after the latest round, it has now been announced that Iraqi Kurdistan has finally relented - agreeing upon to export crude using the central government’s oil marketing body, SOMO - while representatives of the region would now be on its board too.

“After hours of meetings, we have agreed that our brothers in the region will be represented in SOMO and agreed that this is the sole national outlet responsible for exporting oil,” Deputy Iraqi Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Al-Shahristani announced.

The earlier rounds of discussions between Erbil and Baghdad had failed in achieving any breakthrough over the issue of allowing the autonomous Kurdistan Region to export its oil through a pipeline to Turkey. Hence the development seems a major step toward resolving the issue. Yet there is still a long way to go.

“The second issue that is still unresolved is that they want the revenue from oil exports to be deposited in a private account for the region in the DFI (Development Fund for Iraq),” Shahristani said. Revenue from the sale of Iraq’s oil is currently paid into the DFI in New York for Baghdad to disburse.

Kurdistan is entitled to a 17 percent share, but says it in fact receives far less than that, and in recent weeks has accused Baghdad of withholding funds, leaving civil servants in the region unpaid.

Crude from Kurdistan used to reach world markets through a Baghdad-controlled pipeline, but exports via that channel dried up due to the row over payments for oil companies operating in the northern enclave. Since then, the Kurds have been exporting smaller quantities by truck across the border whilst building the pipeline to Turkey and negotiating a multi-billion dollar energy deal with Ankara.

While the talks have continued between Erbil and Baghdad, Kurds began shipping oil independently via the new KRG pipeline into Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which links with the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at the border. However, exports from the Mediterranean port have been on hold on the issue of who is to control the sales and its proceeds.

Baghdad has been sensitive to any news of direct sales as compromising its authority. It has been warning foreign companies interested in Kurdish oil in Turkey that they may face legal action. Baghdad reportedly also hired a law firm to target any buyer of “the illegally exported Kurdish crude oil.”

Iraq’s oil ministry instructed legal firm Vinson and Elkins about two months ago to pursue anyone who buys oil pumped down the pipeline to the Turkish city of Ceyhan, near the Mediterranean, a senior Iraqi oil official told Reuters late last month. “This is not a game. Anyone who buys this oil is doing something illegal,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “We will target the companies because they are the ones who will monetize and pay for the Kurdish oil. How else can it get onto the market?”

Iraq also threatened to boycott Turkish companies and cancel contracts after the KRG announced last month that its first shipment of crude sent directly to Turkey, without passing through pipelines controlled by Baghdad, had gone on sale, with more expected to follow.

Baghdad argued that all oil sales must be overseen by the central government and regarded any independent exports tantamount to smuggling. Temperatures in Baghdad rose dramatically, generating a diplomatic row with Ankara, when Turkey’s Daily Milliyet newspaper quoted anonymous Kurdish sources as saying that the first batch of Kurdish oil had been sold through the Trans Petroleum Company in Singapore, worth $90 million.

Baghdad was irked, forcing Turkish Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z to move in quickly to allay the fears, rejecting reports that oil from the Ceyhan stockpiles has been exported without the consent of the central government.

“Even if a barrel of oil had passed through Ceyhan, Baghdad would have been informed of this and a daily receipt would have been given to the central government noting how much of a sale was made,” Y?ld?z said mid February.

“This is Iraq’s oil, not Turkey’s. Thus Baghdad will be informed, because it is an issue related to Iraq’s income. So far, there has not been any oil that has gone through Ceyhan, but this does not mean it won’t be transferred in future. We’ll share all information with Baghdad,” Y?ld?z emphasized.

And although the issue is still to be fully resolved, and some sticking points remain - hints that a deal between Baghdad and Erbil was imminent has been pouring in for the last few weeks. “We have never been this close to a deal,” Mehmet Sepil, the president of Anglo-Turkish firm Genel Energy who has knowledge of the progress made in talks, was quoted as saying early this month. “The issues that caused impasse have been identified. There’s been quite a bit of progress made.”

“The trickier issue is the bank account. Baghdad wants the revenues to be deposited in the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) instead of a Turkish state bank,” Sepil said. DFI was created in 2003 under a resolution from the United Nations Security Council to receives revenues from Iraqi oil and gas sales, which are used in part for the its reconstruction efforts.

Last but not least, the outstanding oil payments to companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan are a major issue that also needed to be ironed out, Sepil emphasized then.

A will to resolve the issue seems present. And that is helping the cause. For both Erbil and Baghdad know, and rather well, that for their own compelling reasons, they need to sort the issue out - before it is too late.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cf ... 0223196622

[Anthea]

BAS NEWS



Turkish Energy Minister: Kurdistan is our only solution to tackling gas prices

The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yaldiz, said that importing Kurdish gas is the only way to address the expensive price of natural gas in Turkey. So far 610,000 oil barrels from the Kurdistan Region have arrived to Turkey.

Yaldiz told Turkish newspaper Sabah: “By Feb. 22 Kurdistan’s oil exportation to Turkey had reached 610,000 oil barrels. We have no other alternatives for production in Turkey, except Kurdistan’s oil.”

He also noted that this is the only way to tackle the expensive price of natural gas in Turkey.

“According to the oil agreement between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region, Turkey will carry out explorations in 13 different places in Kurdistan until the end of 2014. 300 to 400,000 oil barrels per day are expected to be exported to Turkey,” added Yaldiz.

Kurdish oil export to Turkey has angered Baghdad, which in turn has warned both Kurds and Turks not to continue with their energy dealings without Iraq’s permission or they will black list all Turkish companies working in Iraq and stop the Kurdish share of Iraq’s budget.

http://www.basnews.com/en/News/Details/ ... ices/13637

[Anthea]

Genel Energy announces that KRG exercises back-in right to Miran PSC

Genel Energy plc announces that, on 23 February 2014, the Kurdistan Regional Government ("KRG") notified the Company of its intention, pursuant to the Miran Production Sharing Contract ("PSC"), to exercise its Option of Government Participation.

Accordingly, Genel's working and paying interests in the Miran PSC will fall from 100% to 75%, with the KRG's working and paying interests at 25%.

The Miran PSC covers 761km2 and contains the Miran gas, oil and condensate discovery, which has been independently assessed to contain gross mean contingent resources of 3.5 trillion cubic feet and 95 million barrels of oil and condensate.

On the back of the Turkey-KRG Gas Sales Agreement signed in November 2013, Genel is currently working with the KRG to put in place a Gas Sales Offtake Agreement for the Miran field by mid-year 2014. In parallel, the Company continues to screen a number of development concepts, incorporating both domestic and export supply options.

http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Genel_Energy_ ... 2f5b3.aspx

[Anthea]

SGO clears Kurdistan oil exploration area of unexploded ordnances

February 26, 2014
Sterling Global Operations

Sterling Global Operations (SGO) has completed a project for Terraseis, a seismic survey contractor that specializes in acquiring land and transition zone surveys in challenging environments, to clear mines and other unexploded ordnances from areas within a 400-square-kilometer section of Iraqi Kurdistan in preparation for oil and gas exploration.

Kurdistan has seen a great deal of warfare, and oil and gas exploration can only occur after safety precautions are taken, so Terraseis chose SGO to find and remove unexploded ordnances in the area.

The area cleared was located close to the city of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, near the Iraq-Iran border, about 200 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraq's capital city.

http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/ogfj ... ances.html

[Anthea]

Surely the KRG should take responsibility for clearing the mines

And send the bill to IRAQ

[Anthea]

Baghdad Suspends Some Flights to Kurdistan, as Oil Feud Simmers

The Iraqi government has suspended the flights of two small airlines that operate between Europe and the Kurdistan Region, an airport official in Erbil said, the latest in an oil feud between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurds.

Iraqi transportation minister Hadi Amri said the action against Germania and Hormuz airlines was because of failure to comply with unidentified regulations, but Kurdish officials saw it as the latest move in a dispute between Baghdad and Erbil over oil exports and revenues.

"The Baghdad government does not allow Germania and Hormuz airlines to fly to Kurdistan and flights have been suspended since Saturday," said Talar Faiaq, the director of Erbil International Airport.

The airspace over all of Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region in the north, is controlled by the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA).

In December 2012, Baghdad denied permission to a plane carrying Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz from landing Erbil, preventing him from attending an important oil and gas conference.

An aviation expert told Rudaw that the decision affects only those two carriers, which have been suspended not only from Kurdistan but also from Baghdad.

Amri, the Iraqi transportation minister, said the reason for the suspension was the alleged failure of the airlines to comply with regulations.

"We have special instructions, and they have not committed to them. We will suspend any airline that is uncommitted," he warned.

Amri also denied that the decision was related to the Erbil-Baghdad oil row. “This has no relation to the Kurdistan Region. Don't link everything to the Kurdistan Region.”

Baghdad and Erbil are locked in a complex political feud. The Kurds insist that their autonomy gives them constitutional rights to exploit and export their own vast oil and gas resources, and have signed a comprehensive oil and gas deal with energy-hungry Turkey next door.

Baghdad has opposed the deal. To force Erbil to concede control over revenues to the federal government, it has frozen the KRG’s monthly deposits from the national budget, which go to pay for things like government salaries.

Kurdish officials see the move against the airlines as another pressure tactic by Baghdad.

Faiaq, the director of Erbil airport, said that Baghdad continues to create problems for flights to Kurdistan, which remains the only stable and prosperous portion of violence-torn Iraq. Major Gulf airlines and some European and regional carriers operate regular flights to Erbil
.
"They (Baghdad) are always trying to make hindrances for us. For example, Lufthansa had four flight per week; they made us reduce that to two," she said.

Travelers, some caught unawares, compained about the decision by Baghdad.

“I dont know what my fate is now, whether we will fly or not,” said a passenger waiting to board a flight to Kurdistan at the German city of Munich.

“I am a business owner and I dont know what to do or say."

Blaming Baghdad, he complained that “it does not let the Kurds go on with their own business."

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/27022014

[Anthea]

'This is war,' say Kurds in oil fight with Baghdad

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's dispute with Iraq's Kurdish minority over its independent oil exports has escalated with the central government blocking Kurdistan's share of the state budget and banning two airlines that operate between Europe and the Kurds' semiautonomous northern enclave.

Kurdistan's president, Massoud Barzani, warned Maliki that his actions are "a declaration of war against the people of Kurdistan."

The simmering feud between the autocratically inclined Maliki and the independence-minded Kurds seems set to escalate sharply.

But Maliki is facing a potentially explosive parliamentary election on April 30, the first since U.S. military forces withdrew in December 2011.

He hopes it will bring him a third term as premier, while battling a widening insurgency by the minority Sunnis and al-Qaida that many in Baghdad fear will eventually spread to Iraq's all-important oil industry, which is largely in the Shiite-controlled south.

Some political analysts see the distinct possibility of a compromise in the coming weeks -- Maliki making some concessions to the Kurdish Regional Government on the oil issue in return for Kurdish support at the polls, on which he had to depend in previous elections.

"I expect that somewhere around the election, either just before or just after, Baghdad will grudgingly agree to allow the KRG to manage its own oil exports, with some sort of revenue-sharing arrangement," Richard Mallison, a geopolitical analyst and Iraq specialist with Energy Aspects of London, told The National newspaper, a daily published in the United Arab Emirates.

Maliki's Shiite-dominated parliamentary bloc failed to secure a majority in the 2010 election for the 325-seat Parliament and it was only an eventual alliance with the Kurds that put his State of Law coalition back in power.

After the U.S. withdrawal, Maliki accelerated the process of amassing power in his own hands -- the army, security services the supreme court, the treasury, central bank and state media.

By the spring of 2012, the Kurdish parties and the allies of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, scion of an illustrious family and Maliki's main rival, attempted a parliamentary vote of no confidence in the Iraqi premier.

"The effort narrowly failed due to strenuous Iranian lobbying on Maliki's behalf, but it became clear that he would face a major challenge in securing a third term in 2014," Iraq specialist Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told the BBC.

"Maliki is perhaps unique in being able to boast the U.S. and Iran as his closest backers. Both have stepped into Iraq's political melee to save him from removal on numerous occasions since 2006," when he was first elected.

All this makes the swelling confrontation between Maliki's regime and the KRG, which if not yet independent sometimes acts like it is, a political time bomb.

And lurking behind the confrontation is the concern that if the KRG becomes economically self-sufficient because of the estimated 45 billion barrels of oil it says it sits on, can Kurdish independence be far behind?

The Kurds' move in January to start pumping their oil directly to northern neighbor Turkey via a Turkish-built pipeline to the export terminal at Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast, in open defiance of Baghdad, elevated the dispute to a potentially dangerous level.

Maliki, who insists the Kurdish move is illegal and unconstitutional, cannot be seen to let the Kurds get away with such unilateral actions.

Right now the Kurds are pumping a modest 200,000 bpd to Turkey. By the end of the year they hope to double that, pushing it up to 2 million in the next few years, bypassing Iraq's state exporting network.

The Kurds say they are willing to give Baghdad the greater share of this revenue. But Maliki's government wants control.

Now Maliki has retaliated by blocking Erbil's share of the Iraqi state budget. Under the constitution Kurdistan is entitled to 17 percent of the Iraqi budget, which is used to pay government salaries and the like. But the Kurds claim Baghdad has rarely ever provided more than 10 percent.

Kurdish Prime Minister Bechirvan Barzani, the KRG president's nephew, says he's willing to negotiate everything -- except the budget cut.

Maliki's ban this week on the two airlines, Germani and Hormuz -- Baghdad has control of all Iraqi air space -- is seen as another means of pressuring the Kurds.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... t=rln&or=1

[Anthea]

Iraq oil exports hit record 2.8 mln bpd in February

Oil exports from Iraq rose to a record 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in February, Deputy Prime Minister for energy Hussain al-Shahristani told reporters on Saturday.

The increase is likely to restore some confidence in Iraq's oil revival, which slowed last year due to technical and security problems, as well as an ongoing resource row between Baghdad and the country's autonomous Kurdish north.

A sustainable rise could weigh on global oil prices.

The February figure was up from 2.228 million bpd the previous month thanks to the completion of work on expanding the capacity of the southern Basra port, from which the bulk of Iraq's crude is shipped.

"These projects which we carried out relating to development and production have enabled Iraq to produce 3.5 million barrels per day and to export 2.8 million barrels per day, which is an historic figure," Shahristani told reporters at the Basra refinery during a ceremony for the opening of new units.

One of the new units will increase Basra refinery's capacity by 70,000 bpd to 210,000 bpd.

Iraq set an export target of 3.4 million bpd for 2014, including 400,000 bpd from the autonomous Kurdistan region, implying production of 4 million bpd, including oil used domestically.

Production in February reached 3.5 million bpd, and Shahristani blamed the shortfall on the Kurds, who are at odds with the Iraqi central government over oil rights and stopped exporting via the national network more than a year ago.

Since then, they have been exporting smaller quantities on their own terms by truck, whilst building a separate pipeline to Turkey, infuriating Baghdad, which claims sole authority to manage all Iraqi oil.

Current Kurdish production capacity stands below 400,000 bpd, and around one third of that is refined locally.

Of the 2.8 million bpd exported in February, 2.5 million came from Basra, Shahristani said. The rest was exported from the northern Kirkuk oilfields via a pipeline to Turkey that has repeatedly been sabotaged.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... 5L20140301

[Anthea]

"Any disputes related to oil and its export must be solved according to the constitutional rights"

KRG Denies Any Unknown Pipelines of Smuggling Oil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region: Today, March 3, 2014, KRG Spokesman, Safin Dzayee, in a statement to the KRG official website condemns all the fake news on having a hidden oil smuggling pipeline to export oil from Kurdistan Region to Turkey.

Dzayee says that KRG has investigated on the news of finding a pipeline in Hakari area and found out that the news is False.

"Hakari is a remote mountainous place with no oil field," Dzayee added as he was explaining that it is not possible to a 500 meters pipeline to export oil.

The spokesman also emphasized on the transparency of the oil export process and reaching an agreement with Baghdad over the KRG oil exports through negotiations and dialogues.

"Any disputes related to oil and its export must be solved according to the constitutional rights," Dzayee told KRG official website.

Safin Dzayee, KRG spokesman stated that KRG will not allow such actions and what operates now is just the Pipeline that KRG officially launched to operate the oil from KRG to Turkey.

"Up to date, KRG has not sold even a barrel of oil of the new pipeline." Dzayee concluded his statement.

http://www.pukmedia.com/EN/EN_Direje.aspx?Jimare=19116

[Anthea]

Premier Barzani: Kurdistan Will ‘Not Back Down’ Over Constitutional Oil Rights

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The autonomous Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said Tuesday that Erbil “will not back down” from its constitutional rights regarding Kurdistan’s oil resources, adding that threats by Baghdad would not deter the Kurds.

“We have heard direct threats from Baghdad before,” Barzani said in a speech at the Sulaimani Forum organized by the American University in Sulaimani, Kurdistan’s second-largest city.

“We still continue to talk about solving the issues. But I reiterate -- and Baghdad must know -- that we will not back down from preserving our constitutional rights,” he stressed.

Iraq’s Shiite-led government is locked in a serious quarrel with the Kurdistan Region, which backs its intention to begin large exports to Turkey by citing the constitution. Baghdad insists that oil revenues from exports should be handled by its State Oil Marketing Organization; the Kurds want to handle export and revenues, with SOMO as an observer.

In order to put pressure on the Kurds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has cut the enclave from the national budget. Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani has called that tantamount to “a declaration of war.”

Baghdad alleges that the budget has been halted because of the Kurdish enclave’s failure to export 400,000 barrels of oil per day, which Maliki claims has led to a budget deficit. That allegation is rejected by Erbil.

In his speech at the forum, titled Navigating Challenges in the Middle East, Barzani said that there is serious concern about Iraq breaching the Kurdistan Region’s constitutional rights.

Speaking of Iraq’s insistence on keeping all authority in the capital, Barzani said: “The idea of central rule has ended for us.”

Without naming Maliki, Barzani said that the decision to cut the Kurds from the budget, which has affected the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) ability to pay government salaries, “is the decision of just one person.”

“We are concerned that Baghdad is using the livelihood of the Kurdistan Region as a trump card which is the decision of just one person. What we feared has in fact happened.”

Ali Adib, Iraq’s minister of higher education, who is also taking part in the forum, said that Erbil and Baghdad should try to contain their differences.

“The disagreements cannot be solved overnight,” said Adib. “But if each party stamps its feet inflexibly, we will never reach a solution.”

Speaking of the deadlock over the budget, Adib said: “Iraq has a large budget and everyone must benefit from it.”

Among the number of high-level politicians gathered for the forum was Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

He praised his government’s efforts to make peace with the Kurds in Turkey, saying that Kurds and Turks are equal citizens of that country and that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has helped establish Kurdish radio and TV despite serious criticism from other Turkish parties.

Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) began a peace process last year, which the Kurds criticize for moving too slowly.

Davutolgu said that trade and economic relations are important tools to build strong relations between the people of the region, and that Ankara insists on maintaining relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

He also spoke about the respect for ethnicities and regions: “We must accept that Muslims are Muslims, Christians are Christians and Jews are Jews.” He added that, “We must accept the different people as they are.”

Davutoglu said that the multi-ethnic identities and differences are about to disappear in Syria, “because of the regime of Bashar Assad.”

The Kurdish prime minister, meanwhile, also spoke about the delay in forming the KRG’s new cabinet. He said that the time it has taken to reach an agreement – more than five months after the legislatives elections -- was justified.

“We wanted all the parties who ran in the elections to take part in the government and bring about four years of peace and calm for the Kurdistan Region,” he said.

The forum was opened by Barham Salih, former KRG prime minister, who said that the Kurdistan Region and the Middle East as a whole are facing serious challenges.

“We have many challenges, but we remain hopeful about solutions,” said Salih.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/040320143

[Anthea]

Iraq bolsters Kurdish budget to settle financial dispute

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government approved Tuesday the transfer of US$200 million to the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) budget in a bid to resolve conflict between the two parties over oil exports and budget distribution.

The government has decided to transfer US$800 million to Anbar province to compensate for damages from clashes between the army and rebel groups and US$200 million to the KRG to boost oil companies in the region, Iraqi legislator Jawad Al-Bazouni said at a press conference Tuesday.

"I hope the conflict will be resolved," he added.

Relations between Baghdad and Irbil have been strained since early 2013, when Iraq's parliament passed a budget for the Kurdish region over Kurdish officials' objections.

Tension mounted over Irbil's right to export oil independently of the central government as the Kurdish side attempted to sign an oil export deal with Turkey.

The Kurdish administration maintains it has a constitutional right to sign export deals without the prior approval of Baghdad, which refuses to acknowledge agreements signed between Irbil and foreign oil companies.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news/393457/

[Anthea]

Wall Street Journal

Baghdad, Kurdistan Move Closer To Deal Over Oil Exports - Genel CFO

LONDON--The governments in Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan are moving closer to reaching an agreement over sharing oil revenues from exports, the chief financial officer of Kurdistan-focused oil company Genel Energy PLC (GENL.LN) said Thursday.

If reached, an agreement would allow the U.K.-listed company to ramp up oil production as the upgrades that would almost the double processing capacity at its Taq Taq and Tawke fields are on track to complete by the end of this year.

"They are, as we speak, meeting at the highest levels. I believe we are closer to a deal than we have ever been before," CFO Julian Metherell told The Wall Street Journal.

An agreement would mark a breakthrough in a long-standing and seemingly intractable dispute between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous government in Iraqi Kurdistan over control of the region's oil.

Senior officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, have criss-crossed the country in the last few months in frequent trips to Baghdad to negotiate an agreement that would facilitate exports through a new and controversial pipeline linking Kurdistan to Turkey. However, talks have stumbled over whether the KRG could use its own oil marketing company to sell the crude.

Without an agreement, Genel may struggle to increase exports this year beyond the 70,000 barrels a day peak transported via road trucks to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where the pipeline from Kurdistan terminates.

Crude oil is flowing into the pipeline, which is being commissioned, but the volumes are being stored at Ceyhan while an agreement between Baghdad and Kurdistan is hammered out.

Baghdad has threatened legal action against anyone involved in exporting oil without its consent.

According to reports, the Turkish energy minister Taner Yillidiz said Tuesday that there are now 1 million barrels in storage at the terminal.

Mr. Metherell declined to say how much of that crude in storage in Ceyhan was Genel equity and said the company wasn't looking to sell that crude now.

He added that the company's production guidance for this year of 60,000 barrels a day to 70,000 barrels a day, which is almost double last year's output, was independent of whether an agreement was reached on piped exports.

Mr. Metherell also said the KRG would still be able to sell the exported crude, even without agreement on revenue sharing from Baghdad, based on a legally binding agreement reached with Turkey last November.

"The KRG has a fall back position...which will allow that oil to find its way to market," he said, adding that there was no shortage of potential buyers for the crude.

http://online.wsj.com/article/DN-CO-201 ... 08529.html