Iraq wants Kurdistan region to stop independent crude-oil exports

Iraq wants the Kurdistan region to stop independent crude-oil exports and to hand over sales operations to the Iraqi state-oil marketer SOMO, Reuters quoted the company’s director as saying on Thursday. Baghdad is negotiating with Turkey to allow SOMO to sell Kurdish crude that arrives by pipeline in Ceyhan, the Turkish terminal on the Mediterranean, according to acting SOMO Director General Alaa al-Yasiri. Approximately 530,000 barrels per day used to arrive in Ceyhan via the pipeline until mid-October, around half of which came from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s oilfields. The rest came from Kirkuk, a disputed province claimed by both the Kurdish region and Iraqi authorities.