Iraqi oil officials will meet representatives of international oil companies and Iraqi Kurdish officials in early December to discuss contract changes central to the latest efforts to resume northern crude exports via Turkey, a deputy minister said.

Basim Mohammed, Iraqi deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, said a resumption of northern crude exports that have been paused since March depended on re-negotiating current production-sharing contracts to change them to a profit-sharing model.

“If we reach an agreement with these companies to modify their contracts, then oil exports will resume via Turkey,” he told Reuters.

“We expect to reach a deal with the companies. These companies like to continue operating in the region and without any issues,” he said.

Ideally, Mohammed said, these contracts would be similar to the model used in Iraq’s fifth licensing round with United Arab Emirates-based Crescent Petroleum.

Turkey halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The ruling ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Aref Mohammed; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari; Editing by Barbara Lewis)