Somo: The Kurdistan region has not committed to exporting oil through our company

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SOMO: THE KURDISTAN REGION HAS NOT COMMITTED TO EXPORTING OIL THROUGH OUR COMPANY

Thursday, June 3, 2021 9:51 PM

 

Baghdad / National News Center

Today, Thursday, the Director of the National Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) Alaa Al-Yasiri confirmed that the Kurdistan region has not yet committed to exporting oil through our company, while he expected a rise in oil prices if two things were achieved.

Al-Yasiri said in a television statement, followed by the "National News Center", that "Iraq's oil exports currently exceed two million and 900 thousand barrels per day, and one million and 800 thousand barrels through the ports of the south, and 100 thousand barrels from Kirkuk through the Turkish port of Ceyhan."
Al-Yasiri added, "Iraqi oil is exported to all markets, and the Asian market is the most prominent, and we expect an increase in oil prices in the coming months after the return of commercial activity and global economic activity."

With regard to the oil file in the Kurdistan region, he explained that “the federal general budget law for the fiscal year 2021 deals with the agreement with the Kurdistan region regarding oil, but the Kurdistan region has not yet committed to exporting oil through our company.”

The second paragraph of Article 11 of the 2021 Budget Law states that the Kurdistan Regional Government is committed to producing crude oil from its fields, at an average quantity of no less than 460,000 barrels per day. Allocations of the region’s share of petrodollars, provided that the values of the delivered quantities are not less than the amounts realized from the sale of 250 thousand barrels of crude oil per day at the price of SOMO.

 

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Sumo expects oil prices to rise and confirms: The region has not adhered to the export agreement

 06/03/2021

 

 17

 

 

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Baghdad - Al-Mawrid News

, Director of the National Oil Marketing Company (SOMO), Alaa Al-Yasiri, confirmed today, Thursday, that the Kurdistan Region has not yet committed to exporting oil through our company, while expecting a rise in oil prices if two things are achieved.
Al-Yasiri said, "Iraq's oil exports currently exceed two million and 900 thousand barrels per day, and at a rate of two million and 800 thousand through the ports of the south, and 100 thousand barrels from Kirkuk through the Turkish port of Ceyhan."
Al-Yasiri added, "Iraqi oil is exported to all markets, and the Asian market is the most prominent, and we expect an increase in oil prices in the coming months after the return of trade and global economic activity."
With regard to the oil file in the Kurdistan region, he explained that "the federal general budget law for the fiscal year 2021 deals with the agreement with the Kurdistan region regarding oil, but the Kurdistan region has not yet committed to exporting oil through our company."
The second paragraph of Article 11 of the 2021 Budget Law states that the Kurdistan Regional Government is committed to producing crude oil from its fields, at an average quantity of no less than 460,000 barrels per day. Allocations of the region’s share of petrodollars, provided that the values of the delivered quantities are not less than the amounts realized from the sale of 250 thousand barrels of crude oil per day at the price of SOMO.

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A new setback with the Baghdad and Erbil financial understandings

 

Baghdad

Ammar Hamid

05 June 2021

 

Baghdad demands Erbil for oil revenues (Getty)

 

Despite the approval of the Iraqi parliament at the end of March, the country’s general financial budget, the part related to paying the share of the budget of the Kurdistan region of Iraq has not been implemented so far, and since last Monday, extensive meetings have been taking place between officials in the region, which has been semi-independent from Baghdad since The US invasion of the country in 2003, in order to reach understandings to end the dispute.

According to officials in Baghdad, the reason behind Baghdad's failure to pay the region's share is due to the Erbil government's decline in a number of files that were agreed upon before voting on the budget, including the issue of conducting a field inventory of the total number of employees in the region.

 

Baghdad doubts the numbers presented, which exceed one million and a quarter of a million employees, and considers that there is corruption in this file and fake jobs, and demands a review of it, as well as the issue of the delivery of oil imports to Baghdad. The sources confirmed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the parliament in Baghdad is pressuring the government regarding the region's fulfillment of the agreements before sending its share of more than 11 trillion Iraqi dinars.

Iraqi parliament member Muhammad al-Sihoud told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the negotiations taking place in Baghdad between the Kurdish negotiating delegation and the Iraqi government were not realistic and unsatisfactory so far, noting that "the Kurdistan Regional Government still refuses to hand over oil imports to the Iraqi government and refuses to disclose the number of employees and at the same time demands its full share of the budget."

He added that "the Kurdistan Region exports more than 600,000 barrels of oil daily without returning to the federal government, and contrary to all agreements, the region has not delivered oil imports to Baghdad since 2014 until now."

 

 

For his part, the Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Ahmed Al-Saffar, said in a press statement that the two parties agreed in advance that the federal government would deduct monthly imports of 250 thousand barrels of crude oil exported from Erbil at the price set for SOMO, in addition to that the Kurdistan Region must deliver 50 percent of the Its non-oil revenues go to Baghdad, so that the latter spends its share of the general budget.

And a member of the Finance Committee in the previous parliamentary session, Najeba Najib, explained in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that “the ongoing negotiations between the Baghdad government and the negotiating delegation of the Kurdistan Regional Government have achieved positive results, but until this moment, no amounts have reached the region despite the end of the first half of 2021.” .

According to Najib, "the delay in the arrival of the region's share of the budget has greatly affected the economic situation within the region, as a result of the delay in paying or disbursing employees' salaries between one month and another, and sometimes for two months," indicating that 21 percent of the employees' salaries were deducted because the regional government was unable to secure them perfect".

Najib pointed to the reasons that contributed to the delay in sending the region's share, and that it "was not political, as some promote, but rather technical and will be resolved quickly," while calling on the Iraqi government to "speed up sending the Kurdistan region's share and not to procrastinate any more." The Iraqi federal general budget for the year 2021 is estimated at more than 129 trillion dinars, and thus the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget for this year is 11 trillion and 482 billion and 394 million dinars.

The former advisor to the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Kifah Mahmoud, said in an interview with "Al-Araby Al-Jadeed" that "most of the political blocs and forces reached, before approving the 2021 budget, an agreement that guarantees the region's share of the budget."

 

 

He explained that "what is happening now are government objections to some items of the budget and has nothing to do with the region's share," believing that it is the reason for the delay in sending financial dues to the Kurdistan region, noting that "the Kurdistan Regional Government wants to end the controversy over the budget, and for this reason it sent a delegation to negotiate with The Federal Government is headed by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Regional Government.

Mahmoud pointed out that "negotiations have reached advanced stages and it is expected that the region's dues will be sent in the coming days," stressing the need to send them during the current month, because not sending them means not applying the budget law and entering a new dark tunnel of problems between Baghdad and the region. Especially since Iraq is on the verge of new parliamentary elections.” Mahmoud hoped that “the Iraqi government will send the region’s share and that the political parties will not create a new crisis between the Baghdad and Erbil governments.” 

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