Kurdish contractors threaten export cutoff over payment delay
Frustrated companies are threatening to stop production amidst payment holdups, while Baghdad initiates a $514 million transfer for past exports.
A worker at Gulf Keystone Petroleum's Shaikan production facility. (SEBASTIAN MEYER/Metrography/Iraq Oil Report)
Oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan want to cut exports because of delayed payments from Baghdad, exposing the frailty of a budding reconciliation between the semi-autonomous region and the central government.
Finance Minister Rafa al-Issawi formally approved a $541 million cash transfer to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Thursday, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the matter – a step toward implementing a Sept. 13 deal, brokered by U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad, which calls on Kurdistan to increase exports and Baghdad to pay Kurdish contractors for the associated costs.
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