ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil and Baghdad have reached a key agreement to resume Iraqi oil exports via the Kurdistan Region's pipeline to Turkey, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Tuesday.
This comes as Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani noted that Erbil’s approval of Baghdad’s request came in light of “extraordinary circumstances,” while Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told Rudaw that the agreement will take effect Wednesday morning.
Sherwan Dubardani, a member of parliament representing the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told Rudaw’s Baghdad correspondent Halkawt Aziz that the two sides have finalized a deal aimed at resuming exports.
"Erbil and Baghdad have reached an agreement on oil exports, and the implementation of the deal will begin tomorrow. In the first phase, the available volumes of oil from both the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk fields will be exported together," Dubardani said.
Shortly after, Prime Minister Barzani attributed the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) approval to facilitate oil exports through the pipeline to the ongoing challenges posed ahead of the country.
In a post on X, the Kurdish premier stated that “in light of the extraordinary circumstances facing the country and the responsibility that falls upon all of us to work toward overcoming this difficult situation, we have decided to allow oil to flow through the Kurdistan Region pipeline as soon as possible.”
"At the same time, our discussions with the federal government will continue to urgently lift the restrictions placed on imports and commercial movement in the Kurdistan Region, and to provide guarantees for oil and gas companies so they can safely resume production," Prime Minister Barzani added.
He further thanked the United States for its role in the process. "I express my gratitude and appreciation to our American partners for their role and support in this process.