Iraq excludes Kurds from ambitious 2014 oil output target

[Houston1099]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/iraq-excludes-kurds-from-ambitious-2014-oil-output-target.aspx?pageID=517&nID=49063&NewsCatID=348

 

ENERGY >Iraq excludes Kurds from ambitious 2014 oil output target

LONDON - Reuters

 

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In this Dec. 13, 2009 file photo, Iraqi laborers work at the Rumaila oil refinery, near the city of Basra. AP photo

Iraq aims to ramp up oil production by nearly 45 percent by the end of next year - without any input from its autonomous Kurdistan region - which suggests a lasting compromise in their long-running oil feud may be a way off.

Baghdad's ambitious 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) target specifically excludes output from the northern Kurdish region, senior Iraqi officials said, and relies on new oil pumped from southern oilfields and higher flows from ones already producing.

Thamir Ghadhban, energy adviser to Iraq's prime minister, said Baghdad had lost confidence in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) after it stopped exporting oil through the federal pipeline system.

"The 4.5 million barrels a day is based on the development of the resources within the 15 governorates excluding Kurdistan because of this issue," Ghadhban, a former oil minister of Iraq, said at an energy conference in London on June 18.

KRG says it is owed more than 4 trillion Iraqi dinars, or $3.5 billion, by Baghdad to cover the costs accumulated by oil companies operating there, while the central government rejects those contracts as illegal.

The northern region used to ship crude through a pipeline network controlled by Baghdad, but exports via that channel stopped last December due to the payments row.

"We are not going to start again and make the same mistakes," said Ashti Hawrami, natural resources minister of the KRG.

He confirmed that Kurdish oil is excluded from the 4.5 million bpd target, part of Iraq's blueprint for long-term energy development - launched last week in Baghdad.

Hawrami said the strategy document - first seen by him on June 18 - was "for the rest of Iraq, not northern Iraq".

"I'm afraid we have never been consulted and we do not have any input into this document," he said. "It excludes the Kurdistan region's potential completely."

The dispute between Baghdad and Kurdistan is part of wider disagreements over who controls the world's fifth-largest oil reserves. Iraq says it alone has the exclusive right to export oil and sign deals, but Kurdistan says the constitution allows it to agree contracts and ship oil independently of Baghdad.

Iraqi deputy prime minister Rosh Nuri al-Shawish said talks last week in the Kurdistan regional capital Arbil between the prime ministers of Iraq and Kurdistan had resulted in the formation of a high-level committee to focus on the oil and gas law and revenue-sharing legislation.
 
Triple production in 2017

Reaching the high output level of 4.5 million bpd by the end of 2014 will be a real stretch for OPEC's no. 2 producer, given myriad logistical and infrastructure bottlenecks and the disruption caused by the dispute between Baghdad and Arbil.

After stagnating for decades due to wars and sanctions, Iraq's oil output and exports began to rise in earnest in 2010 after Baghdad secured service contracts with companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and Exxon Mobil. 

Swift gains have raised Iraqi production by 600,000 bpd over two years to 3.15 million bpd. Iraq is due to reach 3.4 million bpd by the end of this year and export 2.9 million bpd - but that includes 250,000 bpd from Kurdistan.

For its part, the northern region is producing just under 200,000 bpd and exporting about 65,000 bpd by truck through Turkey to world markets. It has secured exploration contracts with the likes of Exxon, Chevron and Total.

Reaching Iraq's 2014 target will require the start-up of the giant Majnoon oilfield, operated by Shell, and West Qurna-2, run by Russia's Lukoil, along with Garraf and Badra - further north. 
 
Under a high-production scenario, production would reach 13.5 million bpd by 2017 and be maintained until 2023. A low-production scenario targets 6 million bpd by 2025.

Baghdad is expected to enforce the medium-production scenario, where output reaches 9 million bpd by 2020. That will require renegotiating service contracts with foreign firms. Lukoil - at West Qurna-2 - and Italy's Eni - at Zubair - have already agreed to reduce production targets. Other companies, such as BP, Exxon and Shell are in similar talks. 

June/18/2013

 

 

[cooked]

Are they trying to show how much they can do alone or trying to pi$$ off the Kurds? Just making me nervous.

[10 YEARS LATER]

Who's being payed to throw the ball game ? On the brink of Ch 7 exit and so much more and . . .

 

a number of Monkey Wrench articles are out there not to mention Parliament's whiplash entrance and exit from a grueling 1 day session with yet more time off. This is moving into the surreal. 

[zigmeister]

This may be the whoop ass call from Baghdad to the Kurds after the Chevron deal I was hoping would not show up.  We will see.  

[dontlop]

when john kerry was there a couple months back he said  that washington stands with bagdad ..because the oil is nationalized ..the kurds think they have their own country and they own that oil .. but it isnt so ..

 

 if  a civil war does break out its going to be messy .. the sunnis are bombing the shia mosques ..he kurds want to take part of iraq and make it kurdistan .... its going to be  a ugly   mess three way fight ..

 

 the kurds do not control oil anywhere in iraq... its controled through bagdad

the oil ministry is incharge of all iraqi oil

Earlier this month, a Kurdish delegation in Washington tried to convince the Obama administration to be neutral in the oil- and gas dispute between Erbil and Baghdad, which says that oil deals signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are illegal.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged KRG President Massoud Barzani by phone not to conclude separate energy deals with Turkey, suggesting that “separate efforts undercut the unity of the country.”
 

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/4/turkey4662.htm

..the pipeline will be bombed and instead of getting the money from turkey by going around bagdad .. they will end up with nothing .. all oil is to be metered and sold thry bagdad .. those kurds are going to be crying the blues with nothing especially after ch7 is lifted .... it will take months to impliment more  un resolutions .. by then .. thousands will be dead .. and the turkey pipeline wont be operable .. the kurds will be back to trying to truch oil out to sustain any  future which wont be good  and eventually bagdad will prevail .

the kurds should just take their share  in my opinion.. they signed contracts  that they were told not to and now they owe 3.5 billion dolars and soon with no income ..bagdad will drill without them and the 17% of the budget will most likely drop to around 8 or 10% . they tried to kill saddam .. and he used chemical weapons on them .. i guess they dont learn .. iraq is where they live .. not kurdistan. .. there is no kurdistan any more

iraq is going to be a nato nation .. not a devided nation  into kurdistan and iraq. this was planned long ago ..long before clinton signed iraqi liberation act in 1998 ..

[Kinematik]

Dontlop: Hahah!

Have you read the constitution? The one that both Bagdad and kurdistan have signed!

Do you really think that Exxon, Chevron, total, shamaran and all of the other companies havent got lawyers studying the documents, laws and what not before they signed their deals and put in billions of dollars?

Even turkey now got 6 blocks in kurdistan!

And soon the 1 million barrels per day pipeline is finished to turkey wich will be under control of the KRG.

Tough luck Mr Shitstain and puppet Maliki