ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday received a delegation led by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci, discussing the resumption of the Region’s oil exports.

“Both sides agreed on the necessity of the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports via the Ceyhan port” read a statement by the PM’s office.

The Turkish delegation is set to also participate in the meeting between the Iraqi delegation and the Kurdistan Region’s officials regarding the resumption of the Region’s oil exports.

The Region’s oil exports were halted in March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court, which accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing the KRG to start selling oil independent of Baghdad.

The Iraqi Parliament passed an amendment to the Federal Budget Law in early February involving the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil production, nearly two years after the Paris court’s verdict against Ankara.

Following the ratification of the amendment by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid Sunday, the Kurdistan Region’s acting Natural Resources Minister Kamal Mohammed told The New Region on Monday that they expect the Region’s oil exports to resume by March. 

The bill-turned-law called 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 recently-passed amendments were published in the official Iraqi Gazette on Tuesday, paving the way for the resumption of the export process.

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

The halt in the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports has dealt a major blow to Iraqi and Kurdish economy, costing Iraq and the Region over 26 billion dollars as of Tuesday, according to the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR).