Oil Deal a Sign of Hope between Baghdad, Erbil

Jihad considered the agreement “an important step to be closer to the KRG and overcome the pending issues.” He said, “The agreement will allow benefiting from the Kirkuk oil production, which has stopped months ago, in addition to benefiting from the oil extracted from the KRG’s fields. This agreement will address the crisis the country is currently facing as a result of the decrease in oil prices around the world.”

He said that committees were being formed to discuss the pending issues between the KRG and Iraq and that the oil agreement was a sample gateway to resolve the rest of the accumulated differences between the two parties.

Jihad said he does not currently expect Kirkuk oil production to exceed 300,000 barrels per day, since the previous export rate did not exceed this figure. He said the agreement was subject to the 2015 budget, and in the event of increases in Kirkuk's oil production, it would be taken into account in future budgets.

He said the Iraqi government has already contracted with the British company BP to prepare studies on oil development in Kirkuk, which would allow production in oil fields to increase.

Jihad denied that the agreement was a substitute for the "oil and gas law," and said, "This law and others related to the oil issue, are being prepared in the Cabinet and will soon be transmitted for approval in the parliament to regulate the management of the oil wealth with the KRG and other [oil]-producing governorates. Iraq still needs laws to regulate oil and gas management.”