IRAQI KURDISTAN REPORTEDLY REDUCES DEBTS TO FOREIGN OIL FIRMS BY $1 BILLION

[Wiljor]

Iraq, May 10, 2017 

Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s debts owed to oil companies have decreased by 25 percent as the region has paid back an estimated $1 billion to oil companies over the past eight months.

Dr. Aras Khoshnaw head of the Kurdistan Strategic Investigation and Information Center told Rudaw that loans the Kurdistan Regional Government had borrowed from the oil companies since 2014 have been reduced from $4 billion to just $3 billion as the KRG has started paying back its debts over the past eight months.

Khoshnaw added the process of paying the companies their gross payments has encouraged the companies who had oil agreements with the KRG to return and resume their work in oil fields.

 

He added, the companies have asked the KRG to increase its oil export capabilities as they have increased their productions.

This could be done through two ways, he noted, either through the opening of another route for oil exports, or by adding extra refineries.

According information available to Khoshnaw, the Iraqi government owes the oil companies $70 billion.

Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.

A Kurdish lawmaker said in March 2017 the amount of $1.266 billion from oil exports and Iraqi Kurdistan’s revenue has gone missing over the last three months.

According to local and international observers the lack of control mechanisms in Iraqi Kurdistan makes it a paradise for illegal financial activities by the Kurdish ruling leaders.

Kurdistan Parliament is closed since October 2015 after Barzani’s KDP prevented parliament speaker Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq from entering Erbil, where parliament’s building is located.

The Iraqi government during Nouri al-Maliki premiership cut the Kurdistan Region’s national budget share in early 2014, a move which forced the KRG to borrow large amounts of money from oil companies or delay their payments in a bid to offset its budget deficit to meet the region’s internal needs, notably the salaries of civil servants.

Many Kurdish politicians and observers believe that many of the oil industry projects in Iraqi Kurdistan are conducted in a non-transparent way. Some have even described them as secretive.

ekurd

http://iraqdailyjournal.com/story-z15258520

[MyLadiesDaddy]

26 minutes ago, Wiljor said:

Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.

This is why I don't trust the leadership of the Kurds, and am always saying that they are the real problem in Iraq.