Baghdad Orders Kurdistan to Supply 230,000 Barrels Daily, Aiming to Restart Exports

Iraq’s Cabinet on 17 July approved a plan requiring the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government to transfer 230,000 barrels of crude a day to the federal State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), paving the way to restart exports that have been suspended for more than two years. The decision also allocates 50,000 barrels a day for local use in Kurdistan to cover production and transport costs, according to the Cabinet communiqué. The order follows months of deadlocked negotiations between Baghdad and Erbil over oil-revenue sharing and unpaid public-sector salaries. Failure to reach agreement had kept about 400,000 barrels a day offline and cost the region an estimated $8-9 billion in lost income. Talks earlier this month broke down without addressing the salary backlog, deepening fiscal strains across the Kurdish region. Resuming flows through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, shut since March 2023, is expected to bolster federal and regional budgets and ease tensions that have threatened broader political cooperation. Implementation details, including pipeline logistics and payment mechanisms, still need to be worked out, but both sides described the Cabinet move as a critical first step toward restoring full exports and stabilising public finances.