Iraq Kurds Oil - The Iraqi government has reportedly announced that it is making a deal with Kurdish regional authorities. One that involves oil exports. Now, many are seeing this as a sign that the two opposing parties could mend their differences pretty soon.
Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari explained the Iraq, Kurds oil deal, and according to him the Kurds is to release about 300,000 barrels of oil daily from Kirkuk while another 250,000 barrels will be exported from the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region through Turkey and then handed over to the Iraqi national State Organisation for Marketing of Oil or SOMO.
In exchange for the favor, Baghdad has promised to releasing approximately 17 percent of the budget allocated to the Kurdush region.
For over a year now, the Baghdad government has withheld the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) budget amid the latter's efforts to export oil unilaterally to Turkey, reports the BBC.
Apart from the budget, Kurdish peshmerga, the Kurdish security forces fighting the Islamic State militants will be receiving an extra $1 billion.
Because of the iraq, Kurds oil and budget deal, the Kurds are pleased that the can use the money for its growing security needs, as well as fund infrastructure project s and pay public sector employees.
"This deal is a win-win for both sides," one of the Kurds, a Mr Zebari, told reporters. "The [Kurdish government] needed more stability in its relations with Baghdad and the Iraqi [central] government is going through very serious financial difficulties because of the drop in oil prices, and because of... spending that has been taking place, so really we are struggling to increase oil production."
Through the Iraq, Kurds oil and budget deal, Zebari says that the two parties can now focus on fighting against the Islamic State militants.
"Now the priority really is to confront ISIS," Iraq's finance minister said Tuesday amid the finalisation of the agreement, according to New York Times.
Iraq's Oil Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said join committees will be the ones to follow up the implementation of the deal.
Meanwhile, though it appears to be a favorable agreement for both parties, there are still skeptics and Iraq Oil Report editor in chief Ben Lando is one of them, according to NPR.com.
"When it comes down to it, all of this must be codified in a national budget, which Iraqi politicians have been unable to approve on time each year, or at all such as 2014, leaving room for dispute still over how [international oil companies] will be paid, for example," Lando said of the Iraq, Kurds oil and budget deal.
"The agreement is full of hope, but it is fragile, as any disagreement or outright lack of adherence - not unthinkable in Iraq - could bring it crashing down," Lando quipped.
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