Kurdish exports to hit 250k bpd next year

[TrinityeXchange]

i don't have a subscription to the full article unfortunately but it looks like there are some major concessions being made right now. at first it was 120,000 bpd and now they have agreed to 250,000 bpd. this is awesome news.

Kurdish exports to hit 250k bpd next year

(BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report)

By BEN VAN HEUVELEN

Published September 15, 2012

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has agreed to increase its 2013 exports to 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) – part of a tentative deal intended to help resolve a long-standing conflict with Baghdad over oil rights.

Top leaders from the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) met Thursday to negotiate the details of the agreement, under which the KRG would increase exports and Baghdad would make payments to cover the costs of Kurdistan's contractors.

In a state...

[AustinMom]

Keep the good news rolling

[DinarWhiz]

.

LETS GO RV !!!!!

[TrinityeXchange]

[ReVbo]

What he said. Thanks, Trin. Good stuff.

[steveinfla]

RV NOW DADDY NEEDS A NEW DUALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheArtistFormallyKnownAs]

Thats what I call getting right to the point.

8 )

[zigmeister]

Great post Trinity and . back at ya!

Edited September 15, 2012 by zigmeister

[Carrello]

Trinity, here is the complete article. You may need to leave a message on my Profile page is you need anything else as I missed the message last night.

Kurdish exports to hit 250k bpd next year

By Ben Van Heuvelen

Published September 15, 2012

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has agreed to increase its 2013 exports to 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) – part of a tentative deal intended to help resolve a long-standing conflict with Baghdad over oil rights.

Top leaders from the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) met Thursday to negotiate the details of the agreement, under which the KRG would increase exports and Baghdad would make payments to cover the costs of Kurdistan's contractors.

In a statement released Friday, the KRG confirmed it planned to increase exports to 140,000 bpd in September and 200,000 bpd for the rest of the year, and that "the regional government will determine the quantities of crude oil that will be exported through 2013."

The statement did not clarify how much the KRG expected to export next year, but a member of the Parliament Oil and Energy Committee, who was briefed on the negotiations, said the KRG delegation agreed that the 2013 budget law should call for 250,000 bpd of exports from Kurdistan – as well as payments to its contractors.

By comparison, the past two budgets have set an expectation of 100,000 bpd in 2011 and 175,000 bpd in 2012.

Despite those benchmarks, exports from Kurdistan have been uneven.

For the past decade, the KRG and Baghdad have been locked in a dispute over how to distribute authority over the oil sector, and central government policymakers consider their control over all Iraqi oil exports and revenues to be sacrosanct. Baghdad also considers the KRG's 49 production sharing contracts to be illegal, and has been loath to make any payments that would implicitly validate the deals.

A stop-gap agreement negotiated in January 2011 allowed Kurdish exports to flow for 14 months, but that deal fell apart. Baghdad accused the KRG of failing to cooperate with a mandatory audit, while the Kurds accused Baghdad of breaking its promise to send timely payments to contractors. The KRG cut off its exports on April 1, claiming it was owed more than $1.5 billion.

In mid-August, Kurdistan re-started exports as a good-will gesture, which appears to have sparked the new negotiations.

At the outset of Thursday's meeting, according to the MP who was briefed on the proceedings, KRG Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami requested $2 billion in payments from Baghdad.

The central government delegation responded that they were prepared to pay $650 million immediately, and that Minister of Finance Rafa al-Issawi would recommend that the Iraqi Cabinet authorize an additional $350 million payment this year, according to the MP.

That account conflicted slightly with the Friday statement issued by the KRG, which said the parties had agreed that the Finance Ministry should "pay an advance payment of 1 trillion Iraqi dinars ($833 million) over the next week to the Kurdistan Regional Government as dues for producing companies in the region."

The KRG also announced that, under the new agreement, it would be formally entitled to "17 percent of the total amount of crude oil refined in Iraq."

According to the MP, this clause would require the KRG to tell the central government how much crude it is sending to refineries within the region each month. That amount would then be combined with the federal government's refining numbers for a grand reckoning.

"If the quantity of (Kurdistan's) refined products are not equal to 17 percent (of the national total), the federal government will complete the 17 percent," the MP said.

The new agreement will also grant Kurdistan a 17 percent share of the crude oil that the federal government sends to power stations, which currently totals about 16,000 bpd, according to the MP.

The KRG's statement included several more details about Thursday's agreement:

•It reportedly calls for "the formation of a specialized sub-committee, to include representatives from the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, to follow the amount of crude oil produced, refined, and exported, and to calculate the dues owed to the producing companies in the region."

•Another committee "will follow up on the implementation of the points agreed upon in this meeting, which will have the delegated powers to resolve any obstacles that may arise." This committee will be charged with negotiating all related disputes "between the time of the application of this agreement and the passage of a federal oil and gas law and federal revenue distribution law."

•It reportedly stipulates that "a breach of any item of this agreement will be interpreted as a complete breach of the agreement in its entirety."

•"Is subject to approval by the federal Cabinet and the Cabinet of the Kurdistan region, which is anticipated sometime next week."

Thursday's agreement may face significant opposition in the Iraqi Cabinet, which meets next Tuesday.

Baghdad's most powerful oil official, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, who did not attend Thursday's meeting, has been a staunch opponent of the KRG's claims to autonomous authority over its oil sector. In the past, he has succeeded at enforcing his view that centralized oil powers are essential to the unity of the Iraqi state.

"I suppose Shahristani will not agree with this (agreement)," the MP said. "I don't know what will happen next Tuesday."

[TrinityeXchange]

Baghdad's most powerful oil official, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, who did not attend Thursday's meeting, has been a staunch opponent of the KRG's claims to autonomous authority over its oil sector. In the past, he has succeeded at enforcing his view that centralized oil powers are essential to the unity of the Iraqi state.

"I suppose Shahristani will not agree with this (agreement)," the MP said. "I don't know what will happen next Tuesday."

Carrello, a thousand thank you's for posting this. i was eager to get the full article. our only concern right now is Shahristani. we have not heard peep from this dude and from the things i've read and saw in videos from this guy, he seems to be pretty hard lined. i hope he comes around and just gets it done instead of letting this thing play its way almost to the end and then pulling the plug. i might have to do some extra praying and fasting on Shahristani. we need this guy to comply with the efforts of everyone else so that we can get this done.

[Carrello]

Carrello, a thousand thank you's for posting this. i was eager to get the full article. our only concern right now is Shahristani. we have not heard peep from this dude and from the things i've read and saw in videos from this guy, he seems to be pretty hard lined. i hope he comes around and just gets it done instead of letting this thing play its way almost to the end and then pulling the plug. i might have to do some extra praying and fasting on Shahristani. we need this guy to comply with the efforts of everyone else so that we can get this done.

And a thousand you are welcomes.