Oil & Gas International conference launched in Erbil

“Shafaq News “ reporter said that the conference will be held over four days , with the participation of the President of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani and other ministers of Turkey and Kurdistan, including Minister of Oil , Taner Yildiz as well as politicians and businessmen from Kurdistan and abroad .

He added that any representative of the Iraqi oil sector will not attend the conference but will be attended by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister , Ruz Nuri Shaways .

The organizers expect that more than 100 oil companies will participate in the conference.

The importance of the conference comes in terms of the timing, which coincides with the end of Kurdistan Region of extending a pipeline from the oil fields to Turkey in order to start exporting separately from Iraqi export pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

After the visit of Prime Minister of KRG , Nechirvan Barzani to Turkey last week , which resulted in Turkish and international media leaks that the two sides have signed export agreements without announcing them in order to avoid rejection and reactions from Baghdad .

The conference agenda will focus on the oil and gas sector in Kurdistan and the available investment opportunities for companies , as well as the export of Kurdistan for oil and gas to world markets via the Turkish gate .

The draft law of oil and gas in Iraq, which has been drafted in 2007 and the Parliament has not been able to discuss it until now will be deported to the next session in 2014 , according to what the Head of the Energy Commission has said to “Shafaq News”.

Kurdistan Region has a reserve of crude oil estimated at 45 billion barrels, and it accounts for about 30 percent of the reserves of Iraq as a whole estimated at more than 120 billion barrels . There are also huge reserves in Kurdistan for natural gas.