ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Iraqi parliament will vote on proposed amendments to the federal budget law during Sunday’s session. The amendments could pave the way for the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports nearly two years after they were halted.

Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline have been halted since March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. Consequents efforts to restart exports have failed, due to Erbil and Baghdad’s failure to reach an understanding with international oil producing companies operating in the Kurdistan Region.

The Iraqi parliament conducted the first reading for the bill in November, however, its passing has been repeatedly delayed due to the opposition of lawmakers from central and southern Iraq, who have demanded broader amendments.

The parliament has included the vote on its Sunday agenda. Thursday’s announcement comes a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani held a meeting with heads of the parliamentary blocs, stressing the need to pass the bill in its original text, without any changes.

Vian Sabri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said that the meeting proceeded “positively”, and that “a good understanding” was reached to pass the bill.

“Sudani stressed that Iraq is in need of restarting the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through the Ceyhan port, in order to reduce the damage its halt has caused to the Iraqi budget,” Sabri told The New Region on Thursday.

However, in a post on X, 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.

The international oil companies (IOCs) have repeatedly stated that the value set out in the budget is way lower than their expenses. The amendments would set the cost of production and transportation of a barrel of oil at $16.

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.