Despite this, the KDP was clearly worried. Seven days after the North Oil incident, the head of the KDP, Massoud Barzani, dispatched military forces to the important Bai Hassan oil field, west of Kirkuk. KDP forces have been in charge of security at the Bai Hassan field since July 2014, shortly after the extremist Islamic State, or IS, group took control of the nearby, northern city of Mosul. The soldiers providing the security are from the so-called Oil Protection Force, tasked with providing security to all oil fields in the region – but most of its members are from the KDP.
“Barzani did tell us he was concerned about the PUK force taking control of the North Oil headquarters,” a senior member of one of the Kurdish military told NIQASH, speaking under condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to comment on the matter. But, the commander added, he had no idea whether the decision was political in any way.
In fact, almost every senior politician denies that there was any inter-Kurdish conflict around the Kirkuk oil.
“The goal of all of the Iraqi Kurdish military is to protect all of Kirkuk,” Kamal Karkouki, a senior member of the KDP, told NIQASH. Even if the KDP sends extra troops to Kirkuk, this is just because they are going to help fight in IS-held terrain in Hawija.
Although all official sources deny that the PUK and KDP are tussling over Kirkuk’s oil, observers of the situation in Kirkuk do not believe them. They believe that each of the parties wants to have a say in the city that is often regarded as central to Kurdish identity.
“The KDP and the PUK need to develop plans together, before they go off to Baghdad,” says Ihsan Najim, a local political analyst and a former governor of Kirkuk before 2003. “They need to prevent military forces from getting involved in what are political issues and a war over the petrodollar,” he concludes.
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