*Export issues remain
*No deal reached on other KRG oil deals
*Khurmala dome to be joint developed
*Iraq oil exports increase but income drops with oil price

Two companies developing oil fields in Iraq’s Kurdistan region received approval from Baghdad to tie in to the northern Iraq pipeline, a company official said.

An official from the Taq Taq Operating Co., TTOPCO, a joint venture between Turkey’s Genel Enerji and Canada’s Addax Petroleum, said on condition of anonymity that both TTOPCO and Norway’s DNO were given tie-in permission, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

News reports from Erbil, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s capital, said a visit Monday by Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani paved the way to proceed with the technical work. Iraq exported an average 319,000 barrels per day through the northern pipeline last month. It hit a high of 483,000 in June, and the combined initial addition of TTOPCO and DNO exports could add anywhere between 60,000 to 100,000 bpd depending on technical issues with their respective oil fields and infrastructure.

“Concerning this issue, we have agreed to prepare and link the pipeline (from both fields) to the Iraqi strategic pipeline, but regarding the exporting process there are still some unresolved points which will be discussed … in coming days,” Shamal Aqrawi of Reuters reports Shahristani as saying.

The Associated Press reports there were no decisions made about the disputed two-dozen other contracts signed by the KRG, but Nechirvan Barzani and Shahristani agreed to further talks.

They also will cooperate on Khurmala, part of the Kirkuk structure, which saw national and regional security forces standoff over it during the summer.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry made good on a pledge last month to turn around a four-month decline in oil exports as Iraqi oil starts fetching less than $60 a barrel.

New data from the ministry show Iraqi oil exports increased by more than 7 percent from September through October, which averaged 1.7 million barrels per day, Ben Lando reports for UPI. Exports slightly dropped in the north, from 320,000 bpd in September to 319,354 last month. But southern exports made up for the difference and then some, from 1.32 million bpd in September to October’s 1.38 million bpd.

Iraq’s Central Bank adviser says reserves are at $42 billion, according to the Iraq Development Program.

The University of Baghdad and the Iraqi AlAmal Association have released their new study: Results of the Field Survey for Needs and Opinions of the Poor in Iraq.
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