REGIONAL OIL: THE PATH TO RESUMING EXPORTS AND ITS NEXT STAGES: NEW HOPES ON THE ROAD TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY, 18 FEB

 REGIONAL OIL: THE PATH TO RESUMING EXPORTS AND ITS NEXT STAGES: NEW HOPES ON THE ROAD TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Former member of the Natural Resources Committee in the Kurdistan Parliament, Jihad Hassan, commented today, Monday (February 17, 2025), on the statements of the Minister of Natural Resources in the regional government regarding the resumption of the region’s oil exports.

Hassan said in an interview with Baghdad Today, “This is an economic step that will revive the economy of the region and Iraq in general, and the matter was dependent on Baghdad and Ankara, as the region has been ready for a long time to export oil without any obstacles.”

On the other hand, the expert and advisor on oil affairs, Govind Sherwani, confirmed that “the President of the Republic signed the amendment to Article 12 of the budget law related to the allocations for production and transportation of the region’s oil, and this issue was the obstacle to resuming exports.”

In an interview with Baghdad Today on Monday (February 17, 2025), Sherwani said, “The law will come into effect after its publication in the Official Gazette, and with regard to the technical aspect, a delegation from the Federal Ministry of Oil visited the region to review the technical aspects.”

He added, “It is expected that within a week or the end of this month, the technical arrangements will be completed, and export will become possible. It is certain that the previous quantities, which are 400 thousand barrels per day, will not be, because these arrangements and the rehabilitation of the oil wells that were left for two years require a long time, and it may take more than 3 months to reach the previous rates.”

He pointed out that “the beginning will not be less than 250 thousand barrels exported daily, and it is possible that within a month or two, exports will return to 400 thousand barrels, and this is a new resource to raise the public treasury, especially since this oil can be marketed to European markets without any obstacles.”

At the beginning of 2025, new developments came in the amendment of Article 12 of the budget law, which paved the way for the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region. This step is considered an important solution to a legal problem that was hindering oil exports, and provides the region with an opportunity to enhance its economic revenues by exporting oil to global markets, especially European ones.

Despite the technical challenges facing the process of resuming exports, such as rehabilitating oil wells that have been out of service for two years, experts expect that the export process will begin in limited quantities, with the possibility of gradually increasing them in the coming months.