Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development

[Anthea]

In my opinion Kurds deserve better than to be at the whims and mercy of the Iraqi regime

I firmly believe that Kurdistan is heading for independence - as do most other people

If Kurdistan were to announce it's intentions to work towards independence:

a) Baghdad would be forced to enter into agreement - all be it for a short time

b) It would help to unite the Kurdish population and increase stability within the Kurdish region

[Anthea]

Kurdish government releases energy revenue data

"Billions of dollars" generated from the oil and gas sector have benefited the citizens of the Kurdish region of Iraq, the Kurdish government said.

The semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government published data on revenue generated from 2007-13. It said its Ministry of Natural Resources created gross revenue of around $9.7 billion.

"[The ministry] has presided over the impressive growth of the oil and gas industry in the Region, generating billions of dollars that have benefitted each and every citizen of Kurdistan, and also those of the rest of Iraq," Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami said in a statement Monday.

The KRG and central government in Baghdad are at odds over who controls what aspects of the energy sector. The central government says unilateral activity in the Kurdish energy sector violates the nation's constitution.

KRG said revenues generated from the energy sector have been within limits outlined by a 2007 agreement with Baghdad.

"Thanks to the progressive energy policies pursued by the KRG since 2007, oil and gas have become a key source of our future social, economic and political strength," Hawrami said.

The ministry said most of the revenue was used to rebuild infrastructure and diversify the region's economy through agriculture and tourism.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... 398172900/

[Anthea]

"Billions of dollars" generated from the oil and gas sector have benefited the citizens of the Kurdish region of Iraq, the Kurdish government said.

"Billions of dollars" generated from the oil and gas sector within Turkish occupied Kurdistan have benefited the TURKISH government and may well have been used to pay towards armament and the military submission of the Kurdish population and homeland

[Anthea]

Earlier this week, Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, was reported by Reuters as saying that one of the pipelines carrying crude oil from the Kirkuk oilfields to Ceyhan - Turkey's Mediterranean port - was “unusable” because of continued attacks by extremists.

But that is not the only reason it is unusable; the pipeline is also politically unusable.

The continuing deadlock between Baghdad and Irbil over the sharing of oil revenues and ownership of hydrocarbon resources in Kurdistan continues to cast a dark shadow over inter-governmental relations.

Nothing is going to change on these issues before the elections, and we suggest it is debatable if anything substantive will in fact change in the short-term, and this will impact on both the business operations in Kurdistan of the various oil companies, and on their share and stakeholders.

In fact, the way things are shaping up, we could potentially see the dark shadow turn into a black hole, and the break up of the Iraqi republic.
However, it is wholly questionable how homogenous Iraq is nowadays in any case:

Kurdistan is talking openly of seceding;

Anbar province in the west is scarcely under true government control with extremists operating openly in Fallujah and Ramadi – and indeed elsewhere;

In the oil-rich south, Basra, the treasury of black-gold is restive and also periodically threats to secede from federal Iraq;

In the fragile province of Diyala, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has set up forward operating bases;

Ninewah provincial governor, Athil al-Nujaifi (brother of Usama al-Nujaifi, speaker of Parliament and leader of Mutahiddun) is reportedly being sued by the Federal Ministry of Oil after he signed a preliminary contract for the establishment of an oil
refinery without Baghdad’s knowledge, and by definition without its approval.

Meanwhile, Iraq is some 120 hours away from the election that will determine its future trajectory. The various political rockets are on their launch pads with steam and smoke hissing out of their bottoms. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

These various political parties have in the meantime continued to indulge in trench warfare. During a televised appearance on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister (PM) Nuri al-Maliki accused political opponents of trying to put “obstacles” in the path of Baghdad’s counter-terrorism plans.

Speaker of Parliament Usama al-Nujaifi responded by playing a backhand over the political tennis net by accusing the government of letting the chaos in Anbar continue as an act of commission. This – he claimed - was being done in order to disrupt the elections in the fragile Province of Anbar because Anbar is a Sunni majority region.

The Kurdish media reported that the Secretary General of Iraqi Hizbullah, Wathiq al-Battat, decided to try to make the political tennis match a game of doubles by jumping on the charabanc and calling the PM ‘a dictator’ in a media statement.

For the record, Wathiq al-Battat is a Shi’a cleric and leads both Iraqi Hizbullah and the Jaysh al-Mukhtar. He has been arrested several times by the security forces. Al-Battat was also reported to have said, somewhat ominously, that, after the election, the PM’s destiny would be worse than that of Saddam Hussein as a result of his part in fomenting violence against the Iraqi people.

During his Wednesday TV broadcast, the PM also said Baghdad was committed to confronting the “plight of terrorism”, and suggested that the Iraqi army is securing victories against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremists that have been occupying parts of key cities in Anbar. He also suggested the local tribes were cooperating and coordinating with the Iraqi army to drive “terrorists” out of Anbar.

Usama al-Nujaifi promptly questioned whether or not Baghdad was competent to deal with the situation in Anbar. He criticised the PM for failing to take the Anbar situation seriously, and then delivered a forehand volley “The government must take immediate action [in Anbar], including providing vital food and humanitarian aid to citizens, and exert every effort to end this problem before it develops into a real disaster.”

However, it is worth noting that it has already developed into a real disaster now – according to information obtained by UNAMI from the Health Directorate in Anbar, the total civilian casualties in Anbar up to 30 Mar 14 were: 156 killed and 741 injured; with 80 killed and 448 injured in Ramadi; and 76 killed and 293 injured in Fallujah.

Anbar has thus become a microcosm of the intransigence that continues to consign Iraqi politics to the limbo of feuding stasis.

The State of Law coalition sees the situation in Anbar as being the logical result of Sunni extremism, while al-Nujaifi, Mutahiddun and their growing number of allies see the situation in Anbar as being the logical result of blatant sectarianism.

And with that kind of political polarity, there seems to be little hope of real national unity now, or in the future.

[Anthea]

DOZ News



KRG Offers ‘Goodwill Gesture’ to Resolve Oil Dispute with Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In a move toward resolving a bitter oil and budget dispute with Baghdad – and apparently following US mediation – the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced it will resume oil exports of 100,000 barrels a day via the Iraqi pipeline network starting on April 1.

“As a goodwill gesture the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has offered to make a contribution to the Iraqi oil pipeline exports to give the negotiations (with Baghdad) the maximum chance of success,” Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani was quoted as saying on the KRG’s official website.

“The KRG contribution to oil export will be 100,000 barrels per day effective from 1st April 2014, and will continue while the negotiations are proceeding in a positive direction,” Barzani added. He said there were no immediate strings attached to the exports, which will go through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline (ITP).

The KRG suspended exports through the ITP in December 2012, in a dispute arising from the central government’s refusal to pay foreign oil companies that had signed direct exploration and production contracts with the KRG.

The row worsened after Erbil signed a comprehensive deal for independent oil exports to Turkey, in which the KRG would control exports and revenues but Baghdad would get its constitutional lion’s share of the income. However, Baghdad has insisted that it must control revenues, and to pressure the deal from going ahead, it has all but cut the Kurdish enclave from the national budget.

“The negotiations with Baghdad on oil export and budgetary matters are ongoing. These negotiations have not yet resulted in any acceptable agreements,” said Barzani, who has insisted that the Kurds cannot compromise on what they see as their constitutional rights over energy resources.

Barzani has made three unreciprocated visits to Baghdad since December 2013 in hopes of finding solutions.

“In the coming weeks, the KRG will seek to study a full settlement with Baghdad on a mechanism in which the KRG’s oil exports and oil sales revenues are managed and controlled,” he said in his latest comments on the matter.

The KRG initiative comes a after Brett McGurk, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, met Barzani in Erbil. The US diplomat, who has been involved in a shuttle diplomacy between Erbil and Baghdad, called that meeting “fruitful.”

In a statement, the US Embassy in Baghdad expressed satisfaction with the KRG’s gesture, and urged further talks between the two sides.

“The United States welcomes the decision by the Kurdistan Regional Government to begin oil exports of 100,000 barrels-per-day on April 1 through the Iraqi-Turkey pipeline pursuant to existing export arrangements with the Government of Iraq (GOI),” the embassy statement said.

Last week, the Anadolu News Agency quoted Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz as saying that 1.35 million barrels of KRG oil is in storage at Turkey’s Ceyhan oil export terminal, expected to rise to 1.5 million barrels later in the week.

Turkey has said it would not sell the Kurdish oil without Baghdad’s agreement, and Yildiz was optimistic that Baghdad and Erbil would arrive at a solution.

The US statement also suggested experts from both sides should meet regularly to discuss exports.

“The United States urges the joint GOI-KRG committee, comprising experts from the GOI’s Ministry of Oil and the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources, to meet and assess future month-to-month export targets based on technical capacities and in a manner consistent with the Iraqi Constitution,” it said.

Washington also reaffirmed its commitment to acting as a “neutral broker and facilitator to the extent desired by the leadership of both the GOI and the KRG, consistent with our long-term partnership with Iraq as outlined by the Strategic Framework Agreement.”

According to a statement on the KRG presidency, US Vice President Joe Biden telephoned Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani for Newroz, and both sides agreed that “Erbil-Baghdad disputes to be resolved through dialogue and understanding.”

http://www.doznews.com/news/world-news/ ... th-baghdad

[Anthea]

Energy Quote of the Day: 'We Would be in a Position to Send this Oil to World Markets'



The long-running dispute over oil exports between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi federal leadership in Baghdad rattles on, with Turkey becoming increasingly vocal. Iraqi officials have yet to cement a national oil law that would standardize regulations covering exports and revenue distribution from oil shipped via pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey, where it could be sold onward to international markets.

A minor breakthrough recently occurred which got limited volumes of oil flowing again from Kurdistan to Turkey, but now Turkish leadership is saying supplies are unreliable due to persistent militant attacks on the Iraqi section of the export pipeline that terminates in Ceyhan.

“The pipeline on the Iraqi side is in unusable shape. This is a loss for Iraq,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying by Reuters… “We would be in a position to send this oil to the world markets once the tanks are full. We can’t keep this in tanks,” Yildiz said. – Upstream

The pipeline has a total capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day – but volumes have been well below that threshold – and the oil terminal at Ceyhan reportedly has 2.5 mmbbls reserved for Iraqi Kurdish crude.

http://theenergycollective.com/jared-an ... ld-markets

[Anthea]

Kurdistan Region’s Oil and Gas: Curse or Blessing?


Some speakers focused on the role oil and gas could play in leading the Kurdistan Region to independence from Iraq.

SORAN, Kurdistan Region - Will oil and gas wealth lay the foundation for Kurdish independence? Or will the Kurdistan Region follow the path of countless oil-rich states whose resources ultimately weakened both their economies and democratic institutions?

This is the question that drove last week’s debate at Soran University’s first annual symposium, “Kurdistan’s Oil and Gas: Curse or Blessing?” Businessmen, academics, journalists, oil experts and students gathered for the two-day event at a new luxury resort atop Korek Mountain, to talk about the role of energy in the region.

Despite the altitude, this was not a lofty academic forum. Nor was it marked by the self-congratulatory optimism of oil and gas industry conferences. Everybody who attended agreed that the Kurdistan Region stands at a crossroads: It could become Nigeria -- where enormous oil reserves have famously de-industrialized the nation and created a class of oligarchs -- or it could become Norway, a thriving democracy that has used petrodollars to enrich the nation as a whole.

Organizer Dr. Nahro Zagros holds that the symposium transcends the usual debates over pipelines and revenue control, pitting Erbil verses Baghdad.

“We wanted to debate the bigger strategy behind Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) oil exports, specially the KRG and Turkish relations. We also wanted to know how crucial the oil and gas really is,” he says.

“Our main target is: We don’t just want statements from officials or politicians. We want everyone to be aware about all the underlying implications of oil resources in Kurdistan. We need to develop solutions now for future oil and gas issues.”

Some speakers focused on the role oil and gas could play in leading the Kurdistan Region to independence from Iraq.

Dr, Kamal Kolo of Soran University stressed that Kurdistan was never suited to be part of Iraq. He believes low levels of oil exploration in the region before 2005 were a way of suppressing Kurdish independence ambitions. Now things have changed, as Kurdistan has taken steps of its own to harness its resources, moving closer to its natural place: Apart from its southern neighbors.

According to him, it is Kurdistan’s right to go the way of South Sudan or East Timor in declaring itself an independent state following the principle of self-determination.

This step is possible because “Iraq doesn’t have the elements of control necessary to control its sovereignty.”

In order to be ready for independence, however, the Kurdistan Region must redistribute oil revenues through direct taxation, “the best safety valve for a viable Kurdish state.”

Students rose to give Dr. Kamal a standing ovation, thrilled by the prospect of oil-financed statehood.

Robert Bell, CEO of Archomei, a marketing and logistics consultancy, believes recent events in Ukraine may compel European Union countries to recognize a Kurdish state.

“The cards on the table have been changed by Russia,” he says. “German factory owners are wary of fluctuations in energy prices,” and may look for alternate energy corridors to supply gas and oil. Not only could Kurdistan deliver oil through Turkey, it could be a transit state for Iranian hydrocarbons once sanctions are lifted.

Citing the return of a well-educated Kurdish diaspora to the region, Bell tells the audience that Kurdistan “is in the unique position to be an energy and a skills hub for the region. You have a lot of experience as a nation.”

Skills, he emphasizes, will be even more important than energy rents for lasting prosperity. This means building entire supply chains for oil, not just signing production contracts with foreign companies. It also entails supporting industries that can capitalize on oil wealth, such as hospitality and tourism.

All participants acknowledged the danger of the Kurdistan Region remaining a “rentier state,” a government whose budget relies on exporting or licensing use of its natural resources rather than taxing goods and services in the economy. Over 90 percent of Iraqi revenues come from oil.

“The Kurdistan Region is inheriting some of the historical pathologies of the Iraqi state,” says Dr. Denise Natali of National Defense University in Washington DC. “There is virtually no export diversification. Almost nothing being exported from the region is made in Kurdistan.”

This places Kurdistan in a vulnerable position if there was a fall in global oil prices. “The more a country relies on natural resource rents, the more likely it is to be unstable,” she notes. There is also a clear trend for “natural resource rents as a percentage of GDP to be negatively correlated with the democracy index.”

In order to prevent a “resource curse,” Natali suggests the creation of oil revenue management laws and a sovereign wealth fund, a dedicated public trust. Norway and the United Arab Emirates both have funds with investments worth approximately $800 billion. Plans for a fund in Kurdistan have been discussed since 2007, but never implemented.

These and other conference recommendations will be collected in a report and presented to various KRG ministries. While the politicians have been excluded from the debate, they will ultimately decide if Kurdistan is to become the next Nigeria or Norway of the Zagros Mountains.

Rekar Aziz contributed to this article.

http://rudaw.net/english/business/27042014

[Anthea]

UPI

OSLO, Norway, April 29 (UPI) -- The semiautonomous Kurdish government of Iraq is expected to start selling exported oil within the next few weeks, Turkey's energy minister said Tuesday.

A pipeline from the Kurdish north is sending oil to storage tanks in Ceyhan, a Turkish sea port. Exports of Kurdish oil, however, have been on hold because of the lingering stalemate between the Kurdish and central governments over who controls what in the Iraqi energy sector.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said from Oslo the Kurdish oil will be leaving storage.

"This oil belongs to Iraq [and] they may begin its export in May," he said.

Oil from northern Iraq has been flowing north at around 100,000 barrels per day since the start of the week, he said. He gave no indication of the export destination, noting it was up to private sellers to determine who gets Kurdish oil deliveries.

"[Turkey’s oil refiner] Tupras has its own contracts as a private company," he said. "I always say, they can make their proposal to the private sector and carry out their trade if they agree on a contract."

Last week, the Kurdish government said it generated "billions of dollars" from the oil and gas sector.
Topics: Taner Yildiz

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... =sec&or=bn

[Anthea]

Kurdish Oil to Turkey Resumes; Sales to Begin Soon



ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has resumed oil exports of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) through a pipeline to Turkey, where the crude will go for sale in the next several days, Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz indicated.

"The flow of oil from northern Iraq resumed with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a day,” Yildiz told journalists on Friday in the northwestern city of Bursa. "Turkey only facilitates the procedure and paves the way," he added. “The sales may begin within three days or a week."

Yildiz reaffirmed that the oil belonged to all Iraqis, and they are responsible for the sale. "The oil stockpiles belong to Iraq and, of course, they will sell it themselves," he noted.

A senior advisor at Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “We ask buyers to participate in tenders to sell Kurdistan oil.”

The statements by the Turkish minister and the Kurdish advisor meant that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is going ahead with selling its oil to buyers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, despite unresolved differences with Baghdad over the issue.

The oil row escalated at the start of this year, when the Kurds began pumping oil through their pipeline to Ceyhan, and Baghdad declared the exports were “illegal.”

The central government has said that the revenues from the Kurdish oil sales must be controlled by Iraq’s own State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). When the Kurds insisted on controlling sales and revenues, Baghdad cut off the KRG from the national budget.

Last week, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in exclusive interview with Rudaw that Kurdish oil would be sold in early May. He said that, until now Kurdish oil was stored at Ceyhan but not sold, and that the selling would begin in early May.

The MNR adviser said that the statements by Barzani and Yildiz were quite obvious: “Kurdistan will sell oil at the beginning of this month.”

According to Yildiz, stored Kurdish oil at tanks in Ceyhan now totals 1.8 million barrels, close to the total storage capacity of 2.5 million barrels.

The Kurdish advisor said that Erbil has taken the step of resuming exports and beginning sales after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took the strong step of cutting off budget payments to Kurdistan.

As a sign of “goodwill,” and after intensive US mediation, the KRG had agreed to export 100,000 bpd via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline (ITP), starting April 1. But that did not happen because of technical problems with the ITP and constant sabotage of the pipeline by Sunni insurgent groups.

So far, there has been no comment from Baghdad about the KRG’s latest declared intention of beginning oil sales imminently. In the past, Baghdad has been quick to comment on Kurdish moves over oil exports and sales.

Baghdad has threatened to sue any company lifting Kurdish oil at Ceyhan.

The resumption of Kurdish oil exports comes just two days after Iraq held its legislative elections. Preliminary results show the formation of the next government will be a daunting and lengthy process, as religious and ethnic forces that have been at serious odds with Maliki try to come together in a government.

According to the formula the KRG has proposed, the revenues from oil sales are to be divided between Erbil and Baghdad. The Kurds would get 17 percent of the revenues, equal to their constitutional share of the budget. The rest would go to the federal government, after five percent is given to Kuwait for reparations and compensation that Iraq is obliged to make under UN resolutions.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/03052014

[Anthea]

Todays Zaman

Iraqi Kurds consider oil a guarantee for independence



Kurds, who are taking decisive steps to advance the dream of an independent state nowadays, consider the oil under the areas they control as an essential factor in consolidating Kurdish sovereignty over the region and a chance to rewrite Kurdish history in the region.

Oil has always been central to the Kurdish apriration for international legitimacy. Kurds consider oil a crucial element for international oil trade in the future; therefore, they are struggling over the control of the oil-rich areas in both Syria and Iraq. With a population of around 30 million, Kurds are an ethnic minority group dispersed throughout Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

In Syria, there is a fierce fight between the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- a Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- and other groups over the control of the oil-rich areas. Last year, PYD leader Saleh Muslim Muhammad stated that 60 percent of the oil is controlled and administered by Kurds in Syria. There were even reports saying that the PYD was in talks with Turkey to discuss the export of oil.

In Iraq, Kurds have been in charge of their own affairs since the Gulf War in 1991. Iraqi Kurds run their own autonomous and relatively prosperous region in northern Iraq; furthermore, they have their own army and pursue their own foreign policy. Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is eager to export the oil in their region as they consider it an opportunity to realize their long-held aspirations for independence.

From the other side, as a growing country Turkey desperately needs energy, and the KRG appears to be one of the best options for Turkey's energy needs. The two sides have signed energy deals to further improve economic relations.

However, the biggest risk in this picture is that Turkey's economic ties with the KRG, particularly related to oil, have raised eyebrows in Baghdad. The government has stressed that Turkey should ask the Iraqi government before taking any action in the region that may led to fragmentation in the country.

Beril Dedeoğlu of Galatasaray University told Sunday's Zaman that Turkey would like to see no tension between Baghdad and Arbil over oil, but on the other hand, it seeks to import oil from the Kurds. “This is the game that Turkey wants to play. However, it is unclear whether this game will be sustainable. When at a fork in a road, Turkey will side with the Kurds, not with Baghdad,” she explained.

However, another risk is that the KRG would seek full independence because of its energy deal with Turkey and other foreign companies, despite Baghdad's concerns. However, experts believe that Turkey will act on this matter with an understanding of the risks.

Needless to say, oil is at the heart of the dispute between Kurds in the north and the central government in Baghdad. Under the Iraqi Constitution, Kurds are allotted 17 percent of Iraq's total revenue, 95 percent of which is oil-related; but it must turn over oil discovered and drilled in its territory. But, despite Baghdad's concerns, the KRG considers the oil pipeline to Turkey -- which was completed in 2013 -- as a tool for greater independence.

Recent remarks made by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani garnered great attention, as he signaled that the export of oil is significant for Kurds in gaining independence in the future and that whatever the Baghdad thinks, Kurds are determined to sell this oil.

Barzani said Arbil will start selling its stored oil at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, with or without Baghdad's consent, in the beginning of May. Barzani clearly remarked: “We will sell it. That is our decision.”

In an exclusive interview with Rudaw news outlet, Barzani was asked whether Kurds had prepared themselves to sell oil without Iraq's consent. Barzani replied, “Yes, and we already have paid the price for it.”

Meanwhile, Turkish Energy Minister Taner stated on Wednesday that Turkey is not currently a customer for Kurdish oil but; however, adding that Turkish companies have deals with the KRG and that Kurds could sell the oil to the private sector in Turkey.

For Kurds, oil represents 'hope, but also a bed of nails'

Iraqi Kurds' close economic relations with Ankara would have been unthinkable a few years ago, when Ankara enjoyed strong ties with Iraq's central government in Baghdad and was deep in a decades-long fight with Kurdish terrorists on its own soil.

“Turkey gradually understood that it is in our mutual interest. We negotiated for nearly two years until we reached an agreement and signed a protocol on energy cooperation between Turkey and the KRG. This protocol allows the KRG to export its oil to Turkey and the outside world,” said Barzani.

The pipeline is also likely to take the already warm political and economic relations between Iraqi Kurdistan and neighboring Turkey to new heights. Kurdish officials say they plan to reach a production target of 2 million barrels per day by 2015. If that target is achieved, the Kurdistan region will become a major player on the international energy map. Kurdish oil reserves are estimated at around 45 billion barrels.

When asked about the amount of oil currently being exported to Turkey, Barzani replied that 1.5 million barrels had been sent to Ceyhan, where it is stored in tanks set aside for Kurdistan's oil, but that is still part of Iraqi storage. The KRG's pipeline carries the Kurdish oil to Turkey's Mediterranean export hub of Ceyhan. It initially carries heavy oil from the Tawke field and connects with the 40-inch-wide existing Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to be exported to world markets.

Regarding relations with Turkey, Barzani said that Arbil recognizes its neighbor's importance. “Turkey, for us, is the gateway to the West,” he said.

According to Dedeoğlu, oil is an important factor considered by the Kurds for their dream of independence; however, it is also dangerous in that it brings Kurds face-to-face with the Baghdad administration. She describes oil for Kurds as: “On one hand, it is a [beacon of] hope, but on the other, it is like a bed of nails.”

When Barzani was asked whether selling oil independently was a step toward Kurdish independence, he replied: “This requires the patience and endurance of the people and political parties of the KRG. If the political parties and people in the KRG are not united and do not have one voice on this issue, we won't be able to succeed. The future of the KRG is tied to this subject.”

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-346688- ... dence.html

[Anthea]

Petroceltic Operations Update - Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Egypt & Romania

Petroceltic International plc, the independent oil and gas exploration company focused on the Middle East, North Africa, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, announces an update on its operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Egypt and Romania.

Kurdistan

The Shakrok-1 well on the Shakrok licence (Petroceltic 16%, Hess (Operator) 64% and Kurdistan Regional Government 20%) reached its total depth of 3,538m on 30 March 2014, as previously announced. Based on core and wireline log data, the Joint Venture partnership agreed to carry out Drill Stem Tests (DSTs) over four potential oil zones in the Jurassic interval, which is the primary objective of the well.

The first two of these DSTs have been completed in the fractured carbonates of the Butmah formation. Both of these tests flowed formation water to surface with no hydrocarbons. The forward plan is to proceed with the testing programme and run two further DSTs in the overlying Adaiyah and Mus intervals. Testing operations are planned to continue until late May.

Drilling preparations are at an advanced stage for the Shireen-1 well on the Dinarta licence (Petroceltic 16%, Hess (Operator) 64% and Kurdistan Regional Government 20%). The Parker Rig 247 is currently being rigged-up on the Shireen-1 location. Drilling is scheduled to commence within 3 to 4 weeks and the well is expected to take around 150 days to reach its planned total depth. The well is targeting oil in both the Jurassic and Triassic formations, with gross mean unrisked gross prospective oil resources of 706 MMbbls*.

http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Petroceltic_O ... 9218b.aspx

[Anthea]

The impasse meant the company’s third quarter net profit of $24 million came in below analysts’ estimates.



LONDON - DNO International ASA, a Norwegian oil and gas company, has stepped up exports of crude from Kurdistan’s Tawke field in recent days and an average 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) are reaching storage facilities at Ceyhan in Turkey, the company reported.

DNO, an early entrant into the KRG oil sector, produces 120,000 bpd from the Tawke field, with the balance sold below market prices to the local market in Kurdistan.

The outgoing crude is mounting up unsold at Ceyhan, pending resolution of the continuing dispute between Erbil and Baghdad over control of the region’s hydrocarbons. The step-up in deliveries began on April 26.

The impasse meant the company’s third quarter net profit of $24 million came in below analysts’ estimates.

Company chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, reporting the quarterly results in Oslo this week, highlighted DNO’s position as the fastest growing producer in the KRG with the largest proved and probable reserves of oil and gas.

He noted that the Tawke field was the largest onshore oil discovery in the world in the past 10 years.

"We have our foot firmly on the accelerator in Kurdistan where we are now the fastest growing producer and also number one in proven and probable oil and gas reserves," Mossavar-Rahmani said.

He said that during the first quarter DNO had brought two more high deliverability horizontal wells into production as part of a program to have nine such wells completed by the end of 2014. Capacity was expected to reach 200,000 bpd by year-end.

Elsewhere in Kurdistan, the company has started selling oil from the Benenan field and the first gas from the Summail field.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Mossavar-Rahmani said he believed the company was moving closer to selling the oil held at Ceyhan.

“We’re closer than ever,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying. “The last remaining piece of this is the access to international markets in terms of both security of movement and in terms of payments. And we’re getting there.”

Storage facilities at Ceyhan are rapidly approaching capacity and the DNO chairman said that situation would force a solution. “Either this will trigger an unlocking of this impasse with respect to Kurdistan exports, or it’ll cause us to try to continue to focus on the local market,” he told Bloomberg.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz confirmed this week that the flow of oil from the KRG to Turkey had resumed, adding: "Turkey only facilitates the procedure and paves the way. The sales may begin within three days or a week."

A senior advisor at Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) meanwhile said: “We ask buyers to participate in tenders to sell Kurdistan oil.”

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/090520142

[Anthea]

Some comments on Rudaw about the preceding post:

Now use the money on greater good, like underground sewage system, recycling factories and remove electrical cables from the damn streets. This is yet another step to independence if the Government plays it well.

This is good news. It is heartwarming to see once again the Kurds take another step forward towards oil revenue independence from Baghdad. The 40 inch pipeline the Kurds are using to export their oil through Turkey has a design capacity of 500,000 bpd and therefore that much oil from Kurdistan can reach Ceyhan daily by the end of the year (200,000 bpd from Tawke and 300,000 bpd from Taq Taq and other fields), provided sales begin soon and the bottleneck at the Ceyhan Kurdish oil storage facilities are resolved. Yildiz says Kurds will begin export sales in three days to a week, but Rahmani seems to blieve that there is still an impasse with Baghdad that may impede Kurdish oil sales anytime soon. Meanwhile, the Kurds are building pipelines to Turkey and Iran and can export 1 million bpd to Turkey by 2017 and barter oil for gas with Iran. This will happen in partnership with Baghdad or without it. We hope, however, for the former and for the Kurds to witness after the recent elections, a more enlightened conduct out of Baghdad, for the benefit of not only the Kurds but all Iraqis. Sharistani and Hawrami, with the US mediating, could work this out if they genuinely tried.

Actually. mediating with Mr Sharisthani and Maliki is meaningless for the simple reason that agreements have no meaning for them. The kurds supported Maliki in the last election and got fooled by promises which never were realised. A second reason not to let Baghdad control the export is that Baghdad want to be like the bullying big brother who confiscates a parents weekly pocket money to rhe kids and then dishes out to the little brother at random times and random amounts when he feels like little brother obliges and punishes him when he doesnt obey. That is not acceptable behaviour.

[Anthea]

(AA) -- Iran is close to constructing a crude oil pipeline as well as a natural gas conduit to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, according to Kurdish Regional Government officials in Irbil, the region's capital. Iran and Kurdish Regional Government officials' joint negotiations continued Wednesday on the oil pipeline and gas pipeline projects between two sides, Abdullah Akrayi, Kurdish official responsible for Iranian Affairs, told the Anadolu Agency. The first pipeline will carry crude oil from the Kurdish region to Iran. Iran will refine and dispatch back the oil. The natural gas project is aimed at transferring Iranian gas to cities such as Sulaymaniyah and Irbil.

Akrayi said talks for the two projects began last year but the start of the construction work was delayed due to resignation of the Iranian oil minister, Rostam Qasimi. With Iran's oil refineries in the western city of Kermanshah, Akrayi said Iran was ready to buy crude oil from the Kurdish regional government. "Iran will supply the oil and gas that we need. We expect that the [Kurdish] delegation and Iranian officials will come to a conclusion."

The Kurdish regional government currently continues to transfer 25,000 tons of oil per day from Haji Homaran, Bashmak and Perwizhan border gates to Iran, Afghanistan and Armenia overland. The Kurdish government wishes to decrease oil prices by transferring oil and gas via pipeline instead of overland, with the aim of increasing the volume. In November 2013, Turkish and Kurdish regional administration officials signed an agreement that would enable Kurdish oil to flow from Kirkuk to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's south-eastern Mediterranean coast but Iraqi oil has not yet been exported to international.

http://www.aina.org/news/20140508185001.htm

Anthea: This is really excellent news

[Anthea]

EXCLUSIVE-Israel:

U.S. import disputed oil from Iraqi Kurdistan

U.S. picks up one cargo, Israel at least 4

* Baghdad has threatened to sue companies doing trade

* Trieste, Italy previously main destination

By Julia Payne and Ron Bousso

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Israeli and U.S. oil refineries have joined the growing list of customers for crude from Iraqi Kurdistan, a region locked in a bitter struggle with the central government in Baghdad that says the sales are illegal.

The United States imported its first crude cargo from the region two weeks ago while at least four have gone to Israel since January, ship tracking and industry sources said, after two were shipped there last summer.

The Iraqi government has repeatedly said oil sales by-passing Baghdad are illegal and has threatened to sue any company involved in the trade, yet Kurdish crude and light condensate oil has been sold to several European buyers. Baghdad refuses to sell oil to Israel, echoing other Arab states.

Israel's Energy Ministry declined to comment, saying that it does not discuss the country's sources of oil.

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said Baghdad had no information on the sales but was investigating.

"If these reports are correct, then dire consequences will be inevitable," the Iraqi oil official said.

"This is a seriously dangerous development. We have always warned the region to stop smuggling Iraqi crude by trucks to Turkey...and now if this is proved true then they are going too far."

An official of Kurdistan's Ministry of Natural Resources said from the region's capital Arbil: "The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has not sold crude directly or indirectly to such destinations."

The stakes are high as Kurdistan's independent oil sales allow it to receive income outside Baghdad's budget, pushing it towards even greater autonomy.

Tensions reached a new pitch this week after Kurdistan's president said Iraq had been led in an authoritarian direction by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and threatened to end the region's participation in the federal government.

The deals involve major international commodity traders, including Trafigura, one of the top three oil traders in the world, trading and shipping sources said.

A spokeswoman for Trafigura declined to comment.

The sales come as the KRG and Baghdad aim to complete long-running negotiations over a pipeline Arbil built to Turkey to circumvent the central government monopoly.

Arbil began pumping crude through to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean in January but stopped short of selling it, under the threat of budget cuts from Baghdad.

Storage tanks are now nearly full with 2.4 million barrels, trading and shipping sources close to the matter said. Exports of this oil could start as early as later this month.

TRACKING SHIPMENTS

Iraqi Kurdistan began selling its oil independently of the federal government in 2012 with a small trickle of condensate trucked through Turkey, followed by two types of crude oil.

Baghdad says only its state oil company is authorised to sell Iraqi crude, but both sides claim the constitution is on their side and with a crucial hydrocarbon law stuck in draft mode, there is room to manoeuvre.

A Turkish company called Powertrans is the broker for the Kurdish government, selling the oil via tenders to traders. Much of the crude has gone to Trieste, Italy while the condensate has gone to France, Germany, the Netherlands and even Latin America.

The tanker Marinoula discharged around 265,000 barrels of heavy sour Iraqi Shaikan crude oil at the Oiltanking terminal in Houston on May 1, shipping sources said and Reuters AIS Live ship tracking showed.

The identity of the buyer was unclear as the terminal is connected to 23 refining, production and storage facilities scattered between the Gulf Coast and Cushing, Oklahoma.

The crude was loaded by trading company Petraco at the Delta Rubis terminal at Dortyol in Turkey, one of two ports that export Kurdish oil, the sources said. The company declined to comment.

At least four cargoes laden with Kurdish crude went to Israel since the start of this year. Trading sources said that Israel's Oil Refineries Limited's (ORL) plant at Haifa ran some of it.

Paz Oil Company, owner of a refinery near Ashdod, bought at least two cargoes within the last 9 months, traders said.

A spokesman for ORL said "ORL purchases its crude oil from different sources in accordance with the refinery's needs and market conditions."

A spokeswoman for Paz denied the plant had used Kurdish crude.

Some Kurdish oil has also been simply stored, sources said.

Geneva-based trading company Mocoh lifted Shaikan crude from Dortyol in Turkey on the Baltic Commodore, which arrived in Ashkelon in Israel on Jan. 31, market sources and ship-tracking showed.

An official at the company said that "Israeli refineries are not necessarily using this crude," but declined to elaborate.

Trafigura sent a cargo of Kurdish crude to Israel on the Hope A tanker, which went first to Ashkelon and then to Haifa between Feb 10-15.

The Kriti Jade loaded Kurdish crude in Turkey and then sailed to Ashkelon on March 3 and then Haifa a few days later, the sources and ship-tracking showed.

The second tanker, Kriti Sea, picked up Kurdish oil around March 5. The vessel then anchored off Limassol, Cyprus but did not discharge crude. Petraco lifted both cargoes.

Instead it left still laden and tracking was switched off between May 17-20 near the Israeli coast. When it reappeared, still close to Israel, the tanker was empty. (Additional reporting by Steven Sheer in Jerusalem, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Isabel Coles in Arbil and David Sheppard in London, editing by William Hardy)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/1 ... TS20140515