ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Wednesday stressed the importance of passing the amendments to Articles in the federal budget which relate to the Kurdistan Region’s oil.

The Iraqi parliament is currently studying a bill that calls for amending Articles which relate to reimbursing the Kurdistan Region for the cost of producing and transporting oil. If passed, the bill could result in restarting the export of the Region’s oil through the Ceyhan port, nearly two years after they were halted.

In a meeting in the Governmental Palace on Wednesday, Sudani hosted heads of the parliamentary blocs, the legislature’s Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, and his deputies Muhsin al-Mandalawi and Shakhawan Abdullah.

The Iraqi premier stressed commitment to the amendment text in its original form, which was approved by the Council of Ministers in November, according to a statement from his office.

“[Sudani] pointed out the necessity for the parliament to approve this amendment without change, to complete the development plans, in accordance with the economic interest of Iraq, and the vision adopted by the government program approved by the esteemed parliament,” the statement added.

Vian Sabri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said that the meeting proceeded “positively”.

“There was a good understanding on passing the original text of the bill to amend the budget law,” Sabri told The New Region following the meeting.

Kaveen Saeed, a member of the parliament’s oil and energy committee, told The New Region that an agreement has been reached to vote on the amendments during Sunday’s parliamentary session.

In a post on X following the meeting, MP Raed al-Maliki stressed that lawmakers from central and southern Iraq remain "steadfast" in their opposition of passing the budget amendments unless a broader bill is proposed that serves the interests of Iraq "and not a region or a province."

The bill calls for amending section 2C of Article 12 of the Iraqi federal budget, which states that Baghdad will reimburse Erbil for the production and transportation cost of one barrel of oil at the average cost of production and transportation of the federal oil ministry – which is valued at $6.

International oil companies (IOCs) working in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly stated that the value set out in the budget is way lower than their expenses, halting production and effectively disabling the resumption of Kurdish oil exports until their demands are met.

Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline were halted in March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. The case accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing the the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to start selling oil independent of Baghdad.

Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in April 2023 to resume the exports, but the process has been hampered since, initially due to Ankara stating that the pipeline was in need of repairs after a devastating earthquake months earlier, and later due to the inability of both governments to reach an agreement with the IOCs.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Barzani has repeatedly stressed that the halt in exporting the Region’s oil impacts Iraq’s economy as a whole, with over $25 billion in lost revenue to date.