Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Wednesday that a new oil pipeline linking the region with Turkey will be completed by the end of next September, while expected to start exporting natural gas to Turkey in 2016.
It seems that Kurdistan is taking further steps to achieve economic independence from Baghdad after disputes on conflict area related have worsened as well as management of the country's wealth, particularly oil wealth.
" An oil pipeline that connects the region with Turkey will be completed by the end of next September," The Minister of Natural Resources in KRG, Ashti Hawrami said at a conference in London briefed by "Shafaq News"
He added that the primary energy pipeline would be about 300 thousand barrels per day (bpd), rising eventually to one million bpd.
The Kurdish crude was transported to world markets via Kirkuk - Ceyhan pipeline, which is controlled by Baghdad, but the Kurdish exports via that line stopped last year because of a dispute over payments.
But Kurdistan began exporting crude individually from Taq Taq oil field to the Turkish port of Mersin in early January that exceeded 40 thousand bpd.
It is expected that export would reach 60 thousand bpd by the end of June, when trucks unload their cargo in Dortyol port south Turkey.
Oil is the main problem between the federal government and Kurdistan region.
Baghdad says it is alone that has the right to control exports and conclude contracts while Kurdistan that says it has the right to do so and this is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Iraqi oil marketing state-owned company SOMO sent warning letters to customers not to take any oil that was not marketed by SOMO as Baghdad plans to sue private producing companies as British- Turkish Genel Energy Company.
Baghdad demands Kurdistan Region to pump 250 thousand barrels of oil per day according to what is included in the country's financial budget where Kurdish MPs boycotted voting session on it in protest against the inclusion the oil companies' dues.
Hawrami said that the resumption of oil exports through the Iraqi Federal Pipelines is subjected to reaching a permanent solution between the government of Kurdistan and Baghdad.
The Iraqi Prime Minister met with the leaders of Kurdistan region in Erbil last week and agreed to form committees focused its work on the law of oil and gas in Iraq and legislate a law that organizes the sharing of revenues.
" Oil payments were not discussed as our dispute is constitutional and we look forward to the larger picture," Hawrami said
On plans of natural gas production in Kurdistan, Hawrami said that natural gas exports to the Turkish network from the region are expected to start in 2016.
© Shafaq News 2013
