Turkey Proposes to Mediate in Erbil-Baghdad Energy Row
"We are trying to establish a method which we believe will counter the concerns of the central Iraqi government ... So far, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and central government have not been able to establish the system they wished," Reuters quoted Yildiz as saying.
Yildiz maintained that Ankara has prepared a proposal to settle the issue of payments between Erbil and Baghdad.
Since 2007 Erbil and the central government have been at loggerheads over the autonomous region’s natural resources.
Iraqi leaders say that Baghdad has the sole authority over the country’s oil and gas, while the KRG argues that the constitution gives them the right to extract and export their own oil.
“The distribution of the revenues would be carried out by Iraq, we would only hold these deposits at a Turkish state bank," said the Turkish energy minister.
Kurdish leaders have complained that the central government has failed to pay the fees of foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, estimated at US$5 billion.
Earlier this month Erbil and Ankara finalized a comprehensive energy package that includes the building of a second pipeline connecting the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas to the world market via Turkey.
Kurdistan’s Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami, has stressed in the past that the revenue of Kurdish oil is shared with Baghdad and that there should be no cause for concern on the part of the central government.
Yildiz said that he has discussed Turkey’s proposal to play the role of mediator with Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hussein Shahristani in South Korea, but that nothing has been finalized yet.
With more than 45 billion barrels of untapped oil, the Kurdistan Region has attracted international oil giants such as Exxon Mobil, Total and Chevron. Though the landlocked region relies on Turkey as its gateway to the outside world.
RUDAW
