Iraq And Kurdistan To Work On Energy Bill To Break Impasse

Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) will form a committee to produce a final draft of an oil and gas bill to resolve the ongoing dispute over production and revenue sharing according to Platts and Kurdistan 24.

• A meeting between the Federal Government and the KRG took place on 5 Aug, which recommended accelerating the drafting of the bill. The passing of a bill is seen as a key step in the reopening of the Ceyhan pipeline which facilitates exports from the Kurdistan Region via Turkey.
• Turkey halted flows of around 470k b/d end-March, after an international arbitration court said Ankara had violated its 1973 pipeline agreement with Baghdad, with talk of reopening likely to be on the agenda during President Erdogan’s proposed visit to Iraq.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Iraq in the second half of August for talks ahead of a potential visit from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. No official timeline or itinerary for Erdogan's potential trip has been released. Despite unconfirmed reports of an impending visit to Iraq by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, there are few indications of a deal on the horizon."
• The suspension of northern exports via Ceyhan led Iraq to produce oil below its 4.22 million b/d OPEC+ quota since May, when it started implementing voluntary cuts. Iraq pumped 4.13 million b/d in June according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.