SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met with Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Wednesday at the World Governments Summit in Dubai to discuss resuming oil exports from the Kurdistan Region.
According to a KRG statement, the talks focused on economic cooperation, trade, investment, and resolving Erbil-Baghdad disputes. They also discussed the Kurdistan Region’s role in the Development Road project and the urgent resumption of oil exports.
A key step toward restarting exports is the amendment to Iraq’s federal budget law, passed on February 2, which addresses extraction and transportation costs for international oil firms. Iraqi lawmaker Sabah Subhi told Zoom News that exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline could resume next week once the amendment takes effect.
Last week, the Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources to coordinate with Iraq’s Oil Ministry and international firms to restart exports via the State Organization for Marketing Oil (SOMO).
Exports have been halted since March 2023 following a Paris arbitration ruling in Baghdad’s favor, costing Iraq an estimated $21 billion, according to APIKUR spokesperson Myles Caggins.