Shafaq News – Erbil

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has approved transferring all crude produced beyond local needs to Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO, Education Minister Alan Hama Saeed said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters in Erbil, Saeed confirmed the cabinet voted unanimously last week to deliver any output above 50,000 barrels per day — the Region’s daily consumption — to SOMO.

Baghdad has yet to respond to those comments.

Kurdistan exported about 450,000 barrels per day before March 2023, when flows through Turkiye’s Ceyhan port were halted following an arbitration ruling in Baghdad’s favor. The suspension came a year after Iraq’s Federal Court voided the Region’s authority to sell oil independently.

Those rulings paved the way for a framework adopted by the Iraqi cabinet in July 2025, requiring roughly 280,000 barrels per day to be handed over to SOMO once exports restart.