Kurdish Oil Exports Will ResumeKurdish Oil Exports Will Resume Soon, PM Saleh Says (Update1)
February 16, 2010, 05:10 AM EST
(Adds KRG Prime Minister’s comment from third paragraph.)
By Zahraa Alkhalisi
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Oil exports from northernIraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area are set to resume “very soon,”Kurdish Regional Government Prime Minister Barham Saleh said.
The Kurdish administration is waiting to hearback from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s government about theterms of a payment agreement that would allow oil exports to start,Saleh said today in Abu Dhabi.
“Maliki and I have spoken and we are hopingtechnical teams will get together before long to finalize a deal,” Salehtold reporters at a conference. “I’m not going to put a time frame onit, but very soon.”
Oil exports were halted in October, about fourmonths after starting, because there was no mechanism in place forpayments to producers such as Norway’s DNO International ASA and GenelEnerji AS.
Iraq accepted a Kurdish proposal on payments toproducers in the semi-autonomous region, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Feb. 9, without providing details. The KRG lastmonth proposed the government pay producers directly or for the revenueto pass through the Kurdish authorities.
“We submitted a very practical proposal that theprime minister in Baghdad has reviewed and found to be, as he told me,workable and realistic,” Saleh said today. “Let’s hope we can fine tuneit so it will be acceptable and we will resume oil exports because everybarrel is needed for Iraq’s treasury.”