Baghdad, Iraq- A senior US diplomat is scheduled to attend an important meeting in Baghdad on Thursday, March 6, 2025, to discuss the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region, a source confirmed. The meeting will involve officials from both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi federal government, along with representatives from major oil companies.
Set to take place at the Iraqi Oil Ministry headquarters at 1 pm local time, the meeting aims to address the ongoing issues surrounding Kurdish oil exports. A source from one of the invited international oil companies, who requested anonymity, revealed that the US government is intensifying its pressure on Baghdad to quickly restart the exports.
Sources from the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) and the Iraqi Oil Ministry also confirmed the meeting’s timing. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the meeting was postponed, and a new, unscheduled gathering took place on Saturday. APIKUR spokesperson Myles Caggins expressed optimism about the rescheduled talks, emphasizing the importance of reaching a final agreement to restart the oil exports.
APIKUR, representing eight oil companies in the Kurdistan Region, also seeks assurances regarding payments for production costs under Iraq’s budget amendment. The amendment requires Baghdad to pay $16 per barrel to the KRG, and companies are looking for reliable distribution of these payments.
The Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, which were transported through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, were halted in March 2023. This followed a decision by a Paris-based arbitration court, which ruled that Turkey had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
