Iraq's northern oil exports show few signs of restarting after stoppage

 (Refiles to fix typo in lead paragraph)
 By Rowena Edwards, Amina Ismail and Maha El Dahan
 April 24 (Reuters) - Iraq's northern oil exports show
few concrete indications of an imminent restart after a month of
standstill, as aspects of an agreement between Baghdad and the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have yet to be resolved,
according to four sources.
 Turkey halted Iraq's 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of
northern exports on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which ordered Turkey to
pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by
the KRG between 2014 and 2018. The pipeline had been exporting
around 75,000 bpd of federal crude.
 The KRG's already-fraught finances are suffering from the
absence of oil revenues, two sources said. 
 Lost revenue from the halt for the KRG stands at over $850
million, according to Reuters estimates based on exports of⢇,000 barrels per day, the KRG's historic discount against
Brent crude and 31 days of outages.
 Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous
Kurdistan region, signed a temporary agreement on April 4 to
restart northern oil exports. But the resumption of flows has
seen further delays as the two governments iron out several
aspects of the deal.
 The KRG has agreed for Iraq's state-owned crude marketing
company SOMO to market its crude, which will be restricted from
heading to Asia and priced against Kirkuk official selling
prices (OSPs), sources previously told Reuters.
 SOMO's contracts are still under negotiation, however, and
the mechanism to repay trader debts remains unclear, according
to four sources familiar with discussions.
 Under the April 4 agreement, KRG oil revenues will be
deposited in a bank account at the Iraqi Central Bank under the
control of the KRG but which Baghdad will have access to audit,
two Iraqi officials have previously said. 
 However, details surrounding the bank account are under
review including its location, which is likely to be based
abroad, three separate sources told Reuters.
 The KRG and SOMO are eyeing an early May export restart, two
sources said, with one adding this is far from guaranteed. A
restart is at least 2-3 weeks away, according to a separate
industry source.
 The KRG and Iraq's oil ministry did not respond to requests
for comment.
 Once Baghdad and Erbil reach a resolution, the restart of
oil flows rests in the hands of Turkey. 
 Sources previously told Reuters that Turkey is seeking
in-person negotiations with Baghdad relating to the $1.5 billion
it was ordered to pay Iraq in damages in the arbitration case.
 Turkey also wants to resolve a second arbitration case
regarding unauthorised flows since 2018 before it restarts them,
the sources said.
 Iraq's lack of willingness to discuss these issues has
frustrated Turkey, according to one source. 
 However, a separate KRG source said that Turkey is holding
up discussions ahead of the country's upcoming presidential
elections on May 14.
 The Turkish energy ministry did not respond to a request for
comment.
 Limited storage capacity in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan
region means most of its 450,000 bpd of production has been shut
in. 
 Fields which are still running include Khurmala, which has
reduced output from around 135,000 bpd to 100,000 bpd, according
to a source familiar with field operations. This is feeding
regional refineries and power production. 
 The 4,500 bpd Taq Taq field also "continues to produce into
storage," according to a spokesperson at field operator Genel
Energy.
 

 (Reporting by Rowena Edwards, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Julia Payne
in London, Amina Ismail in Erbil, Maha El Dahan in Dubai,
additional reporting by Can Sezer in Istanbul; Editing by
Bernadette Baum)
 ((Rowena.Edwards@thomsonreuters.com;))