The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has offered to export 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil through Iraq’s federal export pipelines to Turkey.

Negotiations between Baghdad and Erbil over oil exports and the region’s share of the federal budget are still ongoing, according to a statement released by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on 20 March.

“These negotiations have not yet resulted in any acceptable agreements”, according to Barzani but “as a goodwill gesture the KRG has offered to make a contribution to Iraq oil pipeline exports to give the negotiations the maximum chance of success”.

The KRG’s contribution will be effective from 1 April.

Erbil is set to begin independent crude oil sales through a new pipeline to Turkey. There are currently more than 1 million barrels of oil from the Kurdistan region of Iraq waiting in storage at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The oil was shipped through a new KRG export pipeline which became operational in January and through road tankers.

Baghdad insists that only its State Oil Marketing Organization (Somo) has the right to export and sell Iraq’s crude oil. According to the draft budget for 2014, the Iraqi government insists that the KRG must export as much as 400,000 b/d of crude through Somo to receive its 17 per cent share of the budget.