As part of its transparency initiative, the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is finally publishing all of the production sharing contracts (PSC) signed with international oil firms since 2007.

The move was announced on 20 September by Ashti Hawrami, the KRG’s Minister of Natural Resources follows the previous release of the PSC for the Tawke and Taq Taq oil fields.

The originals of all forty PSCs have been submitted to the Energy Committee of the Kurdistan Parliament.
 
“As a result, we now know that the region has potential reserves of 45 billion barrels of oil and 3-6 trillion cubic metres of gas. We are exporting oil from the region for the first time, with export capacity reaching 200,000 barrels a day (b/d) by the end of the year,” says Hawrami.
 
The KRG passed its own law in 2007 and has signed more than 35 oil production sharing, exploration and development deals. Baghdad has complained that in contrast to its own technical service contracts, the KRG’s contracts were not issued under transparent or competitive tenders, nor were they passed through parliament (MEED 17:9:10).