No Oil Exports from Kurdistan, Iraq to Norway

The Norwegian company "DNO" confirmed today, Thursday, that "global oil companies operating in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq will not produce oil for export through any pipeline until the issue of overdue payments estimated at around one billion dollars is resolved." DNO added that "the six members of BAPCo, one of which is DNO, will not resume exports via the pipeline until it becomes clear how they will receive their contractual entitlements from oil that has already been sold and delivered for export, as well as future sales for the export of this oil." For its part, the Kurdistan oil industry association "BAPCo" pointed out that "Turkey's closure of the pipeline linking it to Iraq in March caused Iraq, the Kurdistan regional government, and oil producers to collectively lose a total of seven billion dollars in export revenues." Turkey had halted oil flows through a pipeline in northern Iraq for export following a ruling issued by the International Chamber of Commerce in March in an arbitration case ordering Ankara to pay compensation to Baghdad for damages caused by the unauthorized export of oil between 2014 and 2018.