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Iraq's reputation and endangers its international commitments," the ministry said.
Turkey
halted flows on March 25, 2023, after an arbitration ruling found it had violated provisions of a 1973 treaty by facilitating oil exports from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan without the consent of the Iraqi federal government.
CAIRO, March 25 (Reuters) – Iraq’s oil ministry said on Monday that foreign companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan were partly to blame for the delay in resumption of crude exports from the region.
Foreign companies, alongside the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, had so far not submitted their contracts to the federal oil ministry in order to revise it and issue new contracts that are in accordance with the constitution and the law, a statement by the ministry said.
The Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline that once handled about 0.5% of global oil supply is still stuck in limbo one year after its closure as legal and financial hurdles impede the resumption of flows from the region.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Yomna Ehab; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) ((yomna.ehab@thomsonreuters.com;)
Iraq officials, Kurdish industry reps meet to discuss pipeline restart
8 November 2023 17:29
By Natalie Grover
LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Iraqi government oil officials for the first time met with representatives of the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) on Wednesday to discuss the resumption of flows from the embattled export pipeline from Iraq to Turkey.
The meeting on Wednesday, held in Dubai, involved APIKUR, Iraqi ministry representatives, the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), and Iraq's North Oil Company in Dubai, according to a statement shared with Reuters.
Turkey halted flows through Iraq's northern oil export route after an arbitration ruling in March by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages for unauthorised exports between 2014 and 2018.
Turkey's energy minister in October said that the pipeline was prepared for shipments to begin, but two senior Iraqi oil officials said at the time that Iraq has not received official notification from Turkey on whether the pipeline is ready.
APIKUR's members include international oil and gas firms that have a direct or indirect interest in upstream oil or gas contracts in Iraq's Kurdistan region, many of which have had to stop output as a result of the pipeline closure.
During the meeting, both APIKUR and Iraqi government officials emphasized the urgency of resuming full oil production and exports under mutually acceptable commercial terms.
But no agreement has so far emerged, a source familiar with the matter said.
"This meeting was an initial step...we anticipate future meetings with all stakeholders," said Myles Caggins, an APIKUR spokesperson in a statement to Reuters.
Iraq, OPEC's second-largest oil producer, exports about 85% of its crude via ports in the south. But the northern route via Turkey still accounts for about 0.5% of global oil supply.
(Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Alex Lawler) ((natalie.grover@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter/X: @NatalieGrover;)
© 2023 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
Iraqi PM says foreign companies in Kurdistan to resume production within a month if agreement is reached over contracts
24 October 2023 19:45
BAGHDAD, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Tuesday that foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdish region informed his government that if an agreement is reached on oil production costs and contracts, they will resume oil production within a month.
Turkey halted flows through Iraq's northern oil export route after an arbitration ruling in March by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages for unauthorised exports between 2014 and 2018.
(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed, writing by Amina Ismail, editing by Chris Reese) ((amina.ismail@thomsonreuters.com; +20 2 2394 8114;)
© 2023 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
ERBIL — The Iraqi government will soon request from Turkey to restart KRG cude exports, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani said in an interview with a group of journalists, adding that his cabinet is committed to paying public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region.
"Losing 475,000 barrels of oil per day is significant and will have negative impacts on all parties involved. In the coming days, we will finalize contracts between SOMO and oil companies, and we will inform the Turkish side about the resumption of exports from KRI," he said.
The Iraqi leader also described the provisional joint agreement between Erbil and Baghdad to resume KRG cude exports as "significant", which he said will "regulate the relationship between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region."
He also took the opportunity to reassure that Baghdad will be sending Erbil's share of the federal budget: "Ensuring the payment of salaries to employees, regardless of their location whether in Kurdistan or any other governorate, is a duty of the federal government rather than an act of generosity. The Council of Ministers is actively working towards fulfilling this responsibility."
On IDPs, the Iraqi prime minister stressed that they have "made it a priority to eliminate any impediments that hinder the safe return of displaced individuals to their homes and original places of residence."
The Kurdistan Region is home to nearly 320,000 Yezidi IDPs currently living in camps across the Region. Nearly nine years after the Islamic State (IS) overran Sinjar, most of these IDPs remain in the Kurdistan Region, and are unwilling to return to their hometown because of the instability and insecurity caused by multiple armed militia groups operating in the area.
June 17 (Reuters) – Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is working to establish two oil companies, a spokesperson said on Friday.
The KRG's new oil firm KROC would specialise in oil exploration, while the second – KOMO – would focus on oil exports and marketing from the semi-autonomous region.
The regional government has presented the idea and discussed it with the federal government in Baghdad recently, the KRG spokesperson said in a statement.
DAVOS – Iraqi Kurdish leader says rejects federal court oil and gas ruling
14:44
DUBAI, May 24 (Reuters) – Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Tuesday that the semi-autonomous region rejected a federal court ruling on its oil and gas activities as "political" and not constitutional.
Iraq's federal court has deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude supplies.
Gulf Keystone confirms that a gross payment of $29.4 million ($23.0 million net to GKP) has been received from the Kurdistan Regional Government ("KRG"). The payment is comprised of gross $22.3 million ($17.5 million net) for Shaikan crude oil sales during February 2021 and gross $7.1 million ($5.5 million net) in relation to the arrears from the outstanding November 2019 to February 2020 invoices. Following receipt of the arrears payment, the current outstanding balance is $65.2 million net to GKP.
Iraq halts its first ever prepayments oil deal
Rising oil prices encouraged halting the deal
Chinese Zhenhua Oil Corp was frontrunner to win the deal
Optimistic over budget talks with KRG
Kurdish contracts unsuccessful
(Adds talks with KRG over federal budget, KRG contracts)
By Ahmed Rasheed
BAGHDAD, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Iraq has decided to freeze its first crude oil prepayment deal, which had aimed to boost its finances, because oil prices are rising, the country's oil minister told BBC Arabic on Sunday. ...
"We had concerns that oil prices would not rise above $40 when we announced this deal for the first time in the history of Iraq," Iraq's Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told the channel.
Brent crude has been trading above $60 a barrel recently.
Asked about the status of the prepayment crude oil deal, Abdul Jabbar said: "With the start of this year and the economic stability resulted from boosted oil prices, we decided to freeze this option." Chinese state oil trader Zhenhua Oil Corp had emerged as the frontrunner in a tender to buy Iraqi crude for five years after it submitted the "most competitive bid" in the tender held by Iraq's state oil marketer SOMO that attracted participation from international oil companies, trading houses and Chinese and Indian refiners. ...
OPEC member Iraq was seeking a five-year prepayment starting January 2021 until December 2025 to be repaid with cargoes of its Basra crude, according to a letter sent by state oil marketer SOMO to its customers and seen by Reuters. ...
Under the prepayment deal, the winner of the tender was to pay SOMO about $2.5 billion in return for 48 million barrels of crude between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. ...
Talks With Kurds
Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday he is optimistic that the ongoing talks between the country's central government and Iraqi Kurdish technical and financial teams over a 2021 federal budget and oil dispute could make progress in reaching a deal.
Abdul Jabbar said a "formula has been agreed with the Kurdish region and included in the draft budget" under which the region hands over the federal government the value of exporting 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) at Iraq's SOMO oil prices it sets to sell Iraq's crude oil shipments.
"Further formulas are under discussions also and I think the issue is heading towards a solution," Iraq's oil minister told BBC.
The minister said Kurdish current oil contracts had been signed in the past under a tense political atmosphere and criticised them as "unsuccessful now," saying the contracts do not secure enough revenues.
Iraq’s 2021 federal budget is currently under discussion in parliament and lawmakers say unresolved disagreements over Kurdish oil exports are still delaying budget's approval.
BAGHDAD, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Iraq's cabinet on Monday approved a 2021 draft budget of 150 trillion Iraqi dinars ($103 billion) as the country wrestles with an economic and financial crisis due to low crude prices.
The budget deficit would be estimated at 63 trillion dinars ($43 billion), two government sources said.
The draft 2021 budget is based on a world oil price of $42 a barrel and expected oil exports of 3.25 million barrels per day (bpd), including 250,000 bpd from the Kurdish region, the officials said.
But despite approval of the budget, which should be referred to parliament for final approval, disputes between the central government and semi-autonomous Kurdish region are still unresolved, a government senior economic advisor said.
"Differences between Baghdad and Kurdish delegates are still persisting over Kurdish oil exports and the region's debts. It's too complicated for now to reach an agreement," said a senior government advisor.
Hit by squeezed revenues, Iraq's central bank on Saturday increased the sale price of U.S. dollars to banks and currency exchanges to 1,460 dinars, from 1,182 dinars, seeking to close the gap of widened 2021 budget inflation after a collapse in global oil prices, a major source of Iraq's financial resources. [nL1N2IZ0BE] The finance ministry supplies the central bank with dollars based on a price of 1,450 dinars against the dollar, Central Bank chief Mustafa Ghalib said in a statement.
Iraq has the world's fourth-largest oil reserves and depends on oil revenues to fund 95 percent of its national budget.
($1 = 1.45 Iraqi dinars)
My previous calculation was wrong......
There are even more shares which are excluded and not received any dividend.
(All numbers are rounded up)
I received divi @ 17.47p per share.
Total Divi paid today by GKP (2/3 of $50m) = $33.33 millions
Currency Conversion@ $1.00=£0.81
Total Divi paid (in Pound Sterling) = $33.33m @0.81=£27 millions
So, how many shares received Divi (divide £27m by 17.47p) = 155 millions
Total number of shares in circulation as of yesterday = 223 millions
About 68 millions of shares did not get any dividend......Why.....and Who have them...
Is this part of GKP off-market-buy-back as some of us are talking about and could be announced soon?
(All numbers are rounded up)
I received divi @ 17.47p per share.
Total Divi paid today by GKP (2/3 of £50m) = £33.33 millions
So, how many shares received Divi (divide £33.33m by 17.47p) = 191 millions
Total number of shares in circulation as of yesterday = 223 millions
About 32 millions of shares did not get any dividend......Why.....and Who have them....
8 July 2019
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (LSE: GKP)
("Gulf Keystone", "GKP" or "the Company")
Transaction in Own Shares
Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a leading independent operator and producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, announces that it has made the following redemptions pursuant to the share buyback programme (the "Programme") announced on 8 July 2019.
Date of purchase
8 July 2019
Number of Ordinary Shares purchased
113,000
Highest price paid per Ordinary Share
226.000 pence
Lowest price paid per Ordinary Shares
222.500 pence
Volume weighted average price per Ordinary Share
224.562 pence
Following the repurchase of the shares set out above, the Company's issued share capital consists of 229,429,566 Ordinary Shares. 113,000 Ordinary shares are held in Treasury. For reporting under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, Shareholders should exclude any shares held in Treasury and should use the figure of 229,316,566 Ordinary Shares (the issued voting share capital) when determining if they are required to notify their interest, or a change of their interest in the Company.
The Company will make further announcements in due course following the completion of any further purchases pursuant to the Programme.
In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 details of the purchase of its own ordinary shares by the Company, which were all executed through the Company's broker, Canaccord Genuity Limited, are set out below:
Rosneft to start upstream projects in Iraqi Kurdistan by end of 2018
13:29
MOSCOW, July 24 (Reuters) – Russia's largest oil company Rosneft plans to start upstream projects in Iraq's Kurdistan region by the end of 2018, the company said on Tuesday.
The deals on a production sharing agreement between Rosneft and the Kurdistan regional authorities were signed in October 2017.