Deputy PM for Energy Affairs Hussein al-Shahrestani has temporarily annulled the order to suspend petrol exports to the Kurdistan Region after he met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Iraqi Ministry of Oil decided yesterday to suspend petrol export to Kurdistan without specifying any reason.



Upon a request from Talabani, the deputy PM decided to suspend Ministry's order for only one month, said Shahrestani's spokesperson Faysal Abdullah.



Kurdistan depends on exported petrol from Iraqi provinces to meet its petrol demand.



Oil and its derivations have always been a major source of tensions between Baghdad and Erbil officials.



Baghdad labels Kurdistan oil contracts "illegal" while Kurdish officials maintain the investments are carried out according to the constitution and the revenues will go nowhere but an Iraqi government account.



Under a political agreement Baghdad has undertaken to reimburse the investing oil companies in the region. Suspending the dues of such companies for more than 10 months pushed the Kurdistan Ministry of Oil suspend all its oil exports (175,000 barrels per day) in early May.



The decision led to a political crisis, with incriminations of oil smuggling to Israel exchanged between Erbil and Baghdad officials.



At the sidelines of a press conference yesterday in Erbil Kurdistan Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said that Kurdistan is trying to connect to the international Ceyhan Pipelines.



Hawrami added the first phase of the project is expected to be done by early October.



The oil and gas bill which the Iraqi House of Representatives has failed to ratify in years will indicate the party who will control the oil reserves of Iraq, the fourth largest oil reserve country in the world. Kurdish MP's objection to the bill pushed the Iraqi House of Representatives to return the bill to the Council of Ministers for amendments.





AKnews