*
Baghdad, KRG reach initial oil exports deal, KRG spokesman
says
*
Baghdad hopes for a final agreement soon, oil ministry
says
*
Iraq to request Turkey resumes oil flows, KRG official
(Adds oil ministry comments)
By Rowena Edwards and Ahmed Rasheed
LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) - Iraq's federal government
and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have reached an
initial agreement to restart northern oil exports this week, a
KRG spokesman said on Sunday, and Baghdad will write to Turkey
to request a resumption in pipeline flows.
Turkey stopped pumping about 450,000 b/d of Iraqi crude from
a pipeline from the Fish-Khabur border area to its Ceyhan port
on March 25 after Iraq won an arbitration case. Baghdad had
argued that Turkey had violated a joint agreement by allowing
the KRG to export oil to Ceyhan without its consent.
"Following several meetings between the KRG and federal
government, an initial agreement has been reached to resume oil
exports through Ceyhan this week," Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign
media affairs for the KRG wrote in a Twitter post.
"This agreement will remain in effect until the oil and gas
law bill is approved by Iraqi Parliament," Ghafuri said.
Iraq's oil ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday it hopes to
reach a final agreement soon with the KRG on resuming northern
oil exports.
The halted flows only account for about 0.5% of global oil
supply, but the stoppage, which forced oil firms operating in
the region to halt output or move production into
rapidly-filling storage tanks, still helped boost oil prices last week back to near $80/bbl.
Iraq's oil ministry said that details on the new export
agreement would be announced "in due course".
Sources told Reuters on Saturday the agreement states that Iraq's northern oil exports will be jointly exported by Iraq's state-owned marketing company SOMO and the KRG's ministry of natural resources (MNR).
The resumption of pipeline flows from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region will still need approval from Turkey. "A letter of request to resume oil flows will be sent by Baghdad to Ankara," a KRG official told Reuters on Sunday. Sources last week told Reuters that Turkey wants an unfinished court case settled with Iraq before the pipeline reopens. (Reporting by Rowena Edwards; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Sharon Singleton)
