Baghdad warns of legal action against Kurdish exports
Oil Ministry complains to KRG and Turkey in first official response to Erbil-Ankara energy plans.
Iraq's Oil Ministry said it is "exceptionally dismayed" by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) announcement of independent crude sales and has accused Turkey of breaching treaty obligations by collaborating with the KRG to commandeer a leg of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP).
The "Iraqi Federal Ministry of Oil, represented by SOMO [the State Oil Marketing Organization], is the exclusive sole official body authorized to enter into contracts for the export of hydrocarbon resources, including crude oil and gas," the Oil Ministry said in a statement released Friday morning. "Therefore, companies, bodies and/ or persons who collaborate in such wrongdoing through participating in contracting for purchase or sale of crude oil and gas produced from Kurdistan oilfields or any other fields in Iraq with any entities other than SOMO shall be subjected to legal proceedings and pursuance as the crude exported in such a way is considered as "smuggled crude" and in violation of the valid laws."
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