KRG oil exports via Turkey rises 31% in September

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA

 The Kurdish Regional Government's (KRG) oil exports through Turkey rose by 31 percent in September compared to the previous month, the KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources data revealed Tuesday. 

The KRG in Erbil exported 18.6 million barrels of crude oil, an average of 620,478 barrels per day (bpd), in the month of September through its pipeline to Ceyhan port in southern Turkey. 

This amount was 14.6 million barrels of crude oil, an average of 472,832 bpd in August. However, during that month there were nine days of downtime for the pipeline, due to sabotage and theft, whereas in September there was only two days of downtime. 

Thus, on a daily basis, average crude oil exports from the region to Turkey increased by 31 percent from August to September. 

The KRG's ministry of natural resources said in a statement that during September, fields operated by the government totaled 13. 8 million barrels of crude, or 463,285 bpd on average, while fields operated by the North Oil Company (NOC) produced 4.7 million barrels of crude, an average of 168,904 bpd.

In August, fields operated by Erbil produced 10.9 million barrels, or 353,510 bpd on average, while fields operated by the North Oil Company (NOC) generated 3.6 million barrels, an average of 119,322 bpd.

Issues remain unresolved

Meanwhile, the issues between the KRG and the central government in Baghdad remain unresolved over oil sales and shares from the federal budget. 

According to a deal between the two sides reached on Dec. 2, 2014, Baghdad was to send Erbil a 17 percent share, around $17 billion a year from the federal budget. In return, Erbil agreed to export 300,000 barrels of oil per day from Kirkuk, and 250,000 barrels of oil per day from northern Iraq, under the supervision of Baghdad’s oil marketing company, SOMO. 

However, both sides claimed that the other side had not fulfilled the conditions of the agreement. 

Although, Erbil had announced in June that it will stop exporting oil through SOMO, in August the KRG supplied SOMO in Ceyhan with 1.6 million barrels of crude, or an average of 50,936 bpd.

However, in September, the KRG's ministry of natural resources said the government "continued to increase its direct oil sales in Ceyhan to compensate the region for the budget shortfalls from the federal government in Baghdad," and no oil was delivered to SOMO in Ceyhan.