The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is not smuggling oil but selling it in line with the Constitution, the region’s Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said yesterday.

Responding to the central government’s accusations of “illegal” oil exports, Hawrami said, “We are not oil smugglers. We export the region’s oil in line with the Constitution. This is a legal trade.”



Baghdad is at odds with Ankara and Arbil over the management of the region’s natural resources. Baghdad says Arbil’s oil exports to Turkey without Baghdad’s permission are illegal.



Meanwhile, Turkey and the KRG are in the final stages of talks on Turkish investment in the Kurdish oil and gas sector that could transform the region, Financial Times reported.



According to the report, the proposed deal, which would range from exploration to export, would seek to create a new “energy corridor” that by the end of the decade could send Turkey as much as 3 million barrels a day of oil, 1 million of which would be taken from other regions of Iraq, and 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year