Oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan halt exports until payments issue resolved, 10 NOV

 Oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan halt exports until payments issue resolved

DNO, the Norwegian company, stated on Thursday that international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan region of Iraq will not export oil through a pipeline until the issue of late payments, which amounts to around one billion dollars, is resolved.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraq, and oil producers lost $7 billion after Turkey closed the oil pipeline in March, according to the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) in mid-October.

DNO and the five other members of APIKUR will resume pipeline exports once they receive their contractual entitlements for the already sold and exported oil.

The company owed over $300 million in accumulated debt to the KRG from previous oil sales in 2022 and 2023.

Turkey halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels of daily oil exports via pipeline from Kurdistan to Ceyhan port on March 25.

Turkey suspended its oil exports due to an arbitration decision by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris.

Due to the KRG’s oil exports without permission from the federal government in Baghdad between 2014 and 2018, Turkey was obliged to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in compensation for the damages caused.

In 2013, the KRG started exporting crude oil on their own, which was considered illegal by Baghdad.