Russia's Gazprom Neft has given up on the development of the Halabja oil field in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government mainly due to the presence of land mines in the region, Middle East Director for Gazprom Neft, Sergey Petrov said on late Thursday.
Petrov told Russian Neftekompas magazine that the company abandoned this oil field due to difficulties in accessing the oil well with the presence of landmines in addition to the conflicts in the region.
He explained that the current situation holds risks that the company is not willing to take, given that the geopolitical risks in the region requires significant investments to overcome.
Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad have soared after Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence from the central government earlier this week in a nonbinding referendum.
Iraq and its neighbors, who view it as illegitimate, have denounced the poll.
Baghdad has taken a number of punitive measures against Erbil following the poll, including a move to close all foreign diplomatic missions in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region and calling on all foreign airlines to suspend flights into the Kurdish region by Friday.
The referendum saw Iraqis in Kurdish Regional Government-controlled areas -- and in a handful of territories disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, including ethnically mixed Kirkuk and Mosul -- vote on whether to declare independence.
Three of Gazprom Neft's four projects in Iraq, the Shakal, Garmian and Halabja, are located in the north and hold an estimate of 1.3 billion tonnes of oil.
Gazprom Neft is the operator for the Shakal and Halabja blocks and owns an 80 percent stake. The Kurdish Regional Government holds the remaining 20 percent share interest.
Reporting By E. Gurkan Abay in Moscow
Writing By Murat Temizer
Anaodlu Agency
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