Kurdistan region has a plan to directly sell gas to its neighbor country Turkey, its Ministry of Energy Ashti Hawrami said on Tuesday.

Debate on the region’s natural resources is often one of the subjects rising disagreement between regional kurdish government and federal state of Iraq.
This move is also very likely to anger the central government and further strain Baghdad's ties with Ankara.
Baghdad accuses the Kurds of smuggling their oil abroad, mainly to Iran, and wrecking the central budget by denying it revenue. An accusiation that Kurds refused frequently.
This time, kurdish regional government has publically announced its right to sell gas to Turkey without the interference of a third party.
Such a move is named as necessary by KRG, declearing that progress can not be achieved if the region passes everything to centeral government.
"Even if there's no consensus with Baghdad, we will continue to sell natural gas and oil to Turkey," KRG Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami told the Caspian Gas Forum in Istanbul.
"We plan to sell 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey, and later Europe in the long-term," he said.
The KRG is obliged to attract investment from abroad, he said. "If we left everything up to Baghdad this would not work." He added.