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Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan sign landmark energy contracts |
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Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan sign landmark
energy contracts
29.11.2013 |
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) with
Kurdistan PM Nechirvan Barzani. Photo:
Reuters •
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November 29, 2013
ANKARA,— Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan
signed a package of landmark contracts earlier this
week that will see the semi-autonomous Kurdistan
region's oil and gas exported via pipelines through
Turkey, sources close to the deal told Reuters on
Friday.
The sources said the deals were signed during
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani's three hour-long meeting with
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.
The move is likely to further infuriate Baghdad,
which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil
and which said late on Thursday that any energy deal
with Kurdistan would be "an encroachment on the
sovereignty of Iraq".
The Turkish Energy Ministry declined to comment.
Crude flow in the KRG's new pipeline will start very
soon, and will link up with the 40 inch-line of the
existing Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to be exported to
world markets.
The state-backed Turkish Energy Company (TEC), which
Ankara set up to operate in northern Iraq, has also
signed a contract to operate in thirteen exploration
blocks,www.Ekurd.net
in about half of those it is teaming up with U.S.
giant ExxonMobil.
The contracts also envisage the building of a new
oil pipeline and a gas pipeline, aimed to help the
region's oil exports to climb to 1 million bpd by
2015. The gas flow is likely to start by early 2017.
Under the deal, payments for KRG's oil will be
collected in an escrow account at a Turkish state
bank. Once the contractor fees are paid, the balance
will remain untouched until KRG and Baghdad reach a
deal on the revenue sharing.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
Reuters
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