Load ’em up: fields in Iraqi Kurdistan begin

A media show Monday in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, is the official kick off to the first oil pumped from fields in the KRG to be exported from Iraq.

But doubts remain that the upbeat news of new oil exports – thus state income – can overcome key obstacles: The Oil Ministry in Baghdad has denounced the two dozen oil deals the KRG has signed and there’s no agreement yet as to how the foreign firms will be compensated. And disputes over the rights to sign contracts and how to manage disputed territories were exacerbated by the announcement of a gas export deal in the north.