Iraq's Kurdish Fighters Seize Control of Two Key Kirkuk Oil Fields
Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Jul 12, 2014
Iraq's Oil Ministry said Friday Kurdish Peshmerga forces had seized control of production facilities at two key oil fields near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kurds increased their control over oil resources in the north of the country after deploying armed forces to the Kirkuk and Bai Hassan oilfields and and expelled employees of Iraq's central-government controlled North Oil Company.
Kurdish armed forces moved last month outside their region in northern Iraq and occupied the long-disputed territory around Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled from Islamist militants.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which governs a largely autonomous region in northern Iraq,has built the pipeline in recent years, without Baghdad’s assent, but had not put it to use.
The KRG said the production from its newly-acquired oil fields would be used primarily to fill domestic demand.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry accused the Kurds of seizing the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk-area oil fields in violation of Iraq’s constitution.
“They are ignoring the government of Baghdad, and they are threatening the unity of Iraq,” said Assem Jihad, a ministry spokesman.
The move places Iraq's prize northern oil field in the hands of the KRG; the Kirkuk field alone could add 250,000 barrels a day to the region's oil production capacity.
Since May, KRG began to export locally produced crude via a pipeline to Turkey without the central government’s approval. The Kurdish region increased output by more than 50 percent to 360,000 barrels a day last month as ships loaded crude delivered through the Turkish pipeline, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
Baghdad remains strongly opposed to the KRG independently exporting its oil and has threatened legal action against anyone involved in the sale or purchase of Kurdish crude
The KRG's President, Massoud Barzani , who have vowed to push forward with a referendum on their region’s independence while Kurdish diplomats canvassed for support of partition in Washington.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has meanwhile accused Barzani of exploiting the chaos created by the offensive led by IS, and accused the Kurdish region of harbouring rebels.
The Kurds responded Thursday by withdrawing their ministers from Maliki’s cabinet . Maliki appointed five new ministers to replace the Kurds on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
The jihadists now control an enormous swath of territory between the Kurdish semiautonomous region in the north and southern provinces still under the control of the Iraqi government
But in a sign of the major security challenges Kurdish forces face, a suicide bombing followed by a roadside bomb blast at the entrance to Kirkuk city, the province's capital, killed at least 31 people and wounded 25 on Friday, health official Sabah Mohammad Amin said.
Many of those killed were people who had fled fighting in neighbouring provinces and were trying to reach safer areas in southern Iraq, a senior security official said.
Sources
online.wsj.com
livemint.
washingtonpost
Al aljazeera.
Jul 12, 2014
Iraq's Oil Ministry said Friday Kurdish Peshmerga forces had seized control of production facilities at two key oil fields near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kurds increased their control over oil resources in the north of the country after deploying armed forces to the Kirkuk and Bai Hassan oilfields and and expelled employees of Iraq's central-government controlled North Oil Company.
Kurdish armed forces moved last month outside their region in northern Iraq and occupied the long-disputed territory around Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled from Islamist militants.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which governs a largely autonomous region in northern Iraq,has built the pipeline in recent years, without Baghdad’s assent, but had not put it to use.
The KRG said the production from its newly-acquired oil fields would be used primarily to fill domestic demand.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry accused the Kurds of seizing the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk-area oil fields in violation of Iraq’s constitution.
“They are ignoring the government of Baghdad, and they are threatening the unity of Iraq,” said Assem Jihad, a ministry spokesman.
The move places Iraq's prize northern oil field in the hands of the KRG; the Kirkuk field alone could add 250,000 barrels a day to the region's oil production capacity.
Since May, KRG began to export locally produced crude via a pipeline to Turkey without the central government’s approval. The Kurdish region increased output by more than 50 percent to 360,000 barrels a day last month as ships loaded crude delivered through the Turkish pipeline, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
Baghdad remains strongly opposed to the KRG independently exporting its oil and has threatened legal action against anyone involved in the sale or purchase of Kurdish crude
The KRG's President, Massoud Barzani , who have vowed to push forward with a referendum on their region’s independence while Kurdish diplomats canvassed for support of partition in Washington.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has meanwhile accused Barzani of exploiting the chaos created by the offensive led by IS, and accused the Kurdish region of harbouring rebels.
The Kurds responded Thursday by withdrawing their ministers from Maliki’s cabinet . Maliki appointed five new ministers to replace the Kurds on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
The jihadists now control an enormous swath of territory between the Kurdish semiautonomous region in the north and southern provinces still under the control of the Iraqi government
But in a sign of the major security challenges Kurdish forces face, a suicide bombing followed by a roadside bomb blast at the entrance to Kirkuk city, the province's capital, killed at least 31 people and wounded 25 on Friday, health official Sabah Mohammad Amin said.
Many of those killed were people who had fled fighting in neighbouring provinces and were trying to reach safer areas in southern Iraq, a senior security official said.
Sources
online.wsj.com
livemint.
washingtonpost
Al aljazeera.
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