Iraq agrees with Kurdish authorities on payment plIraq agrees with Kurdish authorities on payment plan for oil exports - report
(ADPnews) - Jan 20, 2011 -
Iraq's oil ministry has
agreed with its Kurdish counterpart
to payexploration costs and fees to the international companies, operating inthe semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, which include Norwegian oilcompany DNO International ASA (OSL:DNO).
Asim Jihad, spokesman for the Iraqi oil ministry said yesterday to newswire Reuters that the State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) willhandle payments to the companies, which will be made through the KurdishNatural Resources Ministry.
Bagdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have been indisagreement over the rights to exploit the region's resources and thecentral government authorities have considered the production sharingagreements (PSAs) signed by the semi-autonomous region withinternational oil companies illegal.
After a meeting between Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki andKurdistan government officials, both sides confirmed that oil exportsfrom Kurdistan will start up again from the two Kurdish fields, Tawkeand Taq Taq, which are developed by DNO International and Turkish GenelEnerji (together with Chinese Sinopec).
The authorities confirmed that they target a rate of 100,000 barrels ofoil per day from the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq and that oilexports will start on February 1, 2011. Exports from Kurdistan werecarried out over a short period in 2009 but were suspended as the Iraqigovernment refused to pay the companies, producing crude oil in theregion Thu Jan 20