Iraq's oil minister has 'reservations' about energy agreements signed by Kurdish region

By Muayad Kenany and Ahmed Rasheed

Iraq's oil minister said that the federal government has reservations about energy agreements signed by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, after Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani oversaw the signing of two deals with U.S. companies worth a combined $110 billion over their lifetimes.

"Agreements and contracts like this should be signed by the federal government," Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters on Wednesday.

The agreements involve the development of the Miran and Topkhana-Kurdamir gas fields in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, and on Tuesday the federal oil ministry that Abdel-Ghani leads called the deals "null and void".

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement in response to that that the deals were based on contracts that had been signed "many years ago" and that had been upheld as legal by Iraqi courts.

Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional government.

A key dispute is over a pipeline running through Turkey that has been halted since March 2023 after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Turkey violated provisions of a 1973 treaty by facilitating Kurdish exports without Baghdad's consent.

Negotiations to resume Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of global oil supply, have stalled over payment terms and contract details.