Kurdistan has increased the amount of independent oil sales since the middle of June, according to news site, Reuters.
Consequently, Kurdistan has reduced the amount of oil sales allocated to Iraq’s state run oil firm Somo, adding fuel to the flames of a long running dispute with Baghdad.
Kurdistan has sold around 9 million barrels of oil in June, which it has exported from the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
This is the first large scale, independent sale of Kurdish oil, since December 2014 when the semi-autonimous region signed an agreement with Baghdad to transfer up to 550,000 bpd to Somo in exchange for a 17% allocation of budget payments to Erbil.
The deal has faced troubles ever since with Baghdad accusing Arbil of allocating smaller-than-agreed amount of oil and Arbil saying Baghdad is paying less than a half of what is due. Neither side has yet called the deal dead but the blame game has continued for weeks.
“Unfortunately the (Kurdistan) region has not complied with it until now,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in his weekly address on Sunday.
That followed a statement from the government of Kurdistan (KRG) earlier in June in which is said it remained committed to oil transfers to SOMO but accused Baghdad of reneging on the deal.
“If Iraq’s federal government does not commit to the federal budget law, the KRG is obliged to consider other solutions to provide for the livelihoods of the Kurdistan region’s people and to solve the financial and economic crisis,” it said.
