Kurdistan Seals Oil Products Deal with Baghdad

Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan said it would receive 147,000 barrels of oil products per day, as part of a deal concluded with Baghdad to end a dispute over oil payments.

The deal, which was first outlined last week, will solve only few points of a broader feud between Baghdad and Kurdistan over oil exports, energy policy and territory which have become increasingly contentious topics.

"This deal cannot solve all the problems currently but it is considered a good step," Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement posted on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) website.

Under the terms, the federal government in Baghdad will send 17 percent of its oil products to Kurdistan, which works out at 147,000 barrels per day, the statement said.

Baghdad and Kurdistan have been feuding over major oil companies like Exxon and Chevron who have signed exploration deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, contracts the central government says are illegal.

Kurdistan, autonomous with its own government and armed forces since 1991, gets central government funding and uses national pipelines to ship its oil. Baghdad says only the central government has the right to ship oil and gas.

Barzani said Kurdistan had formed a committee to calculate oil contract revenues and expenses in Kurdistan. He said a report on this would be published at a later date.

Kurdistan has said it will keep its oil production for export at 140,000 barrels per day this month before raising it to 200,000 bpd for the rest of the year. It also said Baghdad would pay 1 trillion Iraqi dinars or around $857 million for foreign companies working in the Kurdish region.

Kurdistan halted shipments of its oil in April in protest over what it said were payments due from Baghdad to companies. It restarted shipments later, but had said it would halt them again by September 15 if there was no agreement on payment.