ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a monthly oil report released Thursday said due to the long-standing budget impasse with Baghdad it had no choice but to increase its independent oil sales in June.

“The KRG was obliged to increase independent sales due to significant debt backlog arising from budget cut of 2014 imposed by federal government,” read the statement released by the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources.

According to the statement in the month of June, KRG has exported 17,130,639 barrels of crude oil, making up an average of 571,021 barrel per day. The crude oil was shipped to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey through a pipeline from the Kurdistan region.

Rudaw