Tony Hayward, the former chief executive of BP who now leads London-listed Genel Energy, has predicted a formal agreement between Turkey and Kurdistan within months that will lead to full-scale exports from the oil-rich region of Iraq from next year.

His forecast of an imminent pact between governments inAnkaraand Erbil to approve full-scale exports from the semi-autonomous territory came as Genel committed to further exploration inKurdistanand north Africa.

Genel, along with several other early-stage producers who have struck deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, remain locked in a stand-off with Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad that has challenged the legitimacy of licences granted by the regional government.

A compromise deal last September that led to a short-run resumption of exports through Baghdad-controlled federal pipeline system from Kurdistan has since collapsed leading the KRG to sanction small-scale exports of oil from fields toTurkeyby tanker.

On Wednesday, Mr Hayward described the level of exports by tanker, running at no more than 5,000 barrels a day, as “symbolic for supply of exports betweenTurkeyand the KRG”.

But he pointed to good progress in the building of a new pipeline capable of exporting up to 1m barrels of oil a day to the Turkish border that is expected to be operational by 2014.

“Some things are not in our control but we believe we will see interesting progress in the first half that will see full-blown exports in 2014,” said Mr Hayward.



Soran Ali