Baghdad asks Erbil to reduce oil production
Shafaq News / The Kurdish Minister for Federal Government Affairs announced that the Iraqi government has asked the region to reduce its oil production by 120 thousand barrels per day.
Khaled Shawani said in an interview with the official Al-Iraqiya channel that “in 2019 an agreement was reached on the budget, as the regional government committed to handing over Baghdad the revenues of 250 thousand barrels per day, indicating that the reason for not delivering those for the this year is due to not having a federal budget.”
He added that the “Kurdistan Region’s oil production was 480,000 barrels per day, but after the OPEC agreement it was reduced to 410,000 barrels per day, pointing out that domestic consumption in the region is estimated at 30,000 barrels per day.”
He pointed out that there is a “the Government contracted with an international company to audit sale and revenues related to oil production, after which the regional government delivers all the results data to the federal government.”
He continued, that the “federal government asked the region to reduce 120 thousand barrels per day, according to OPEC, but the region could not do so due to the existence of financial obligations, indicating that the region's monthly expenses such as salaries of employees and retirees and social care amounted to 755 million dollars.”
“The financial dues from debts, borrowings and salaries for employees are estimated at 27 billion dollars, and the region's employees suffer from major problems due to not receiving their salaries monthly. “He added.
Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar said last week that the Kurdistan Region is still exporting oil without consulting the federal government.
OPEC+ is reducing production by 7.7 million barrels per day to support prices in light of the Corona virus crisis that strikes demand.
But Iraq pledged to cut further in August and September to compensate for excess supplies in previous months, despite its almost complete dependence on oil as a source of revenue.
