Baghdad to investigate the fingers of Erbil hidden in the fields of Kirkuk

The Iraqi parliament voted yesterday to prevent the Kurdish engineering group Karr from operating Kirkuk oil fields, in a move that could aggravate the tension between Baghdad and Erbil, despite international calls to ease the crises in the region.

Lawmakers said the Kar group had refused to cooperate with the state-run Iraqi Oil Company and refused to hand over the Khormala oil field to the federal administration.

Iraqi forces regained control of the province and its oil fields last October from Kurds who say the Khormala field lies within the official borders of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Observers point out that Carr is owned by KRG President Nejirvan Barzani, but is registered in private sector companies. The company is accused of running large-scale smuggling operations from the Kirkuk fields, whose revenues go to the accounts of Kurdish politicians.

The parliament also authorized the North Oil Company to take over production and export operations in the field. Iraq's production and crude exports may eventually increase, but the size of the increase is unclear.

The parliament has asked the central bank to track money from Kurdish oil exports deposited in banks outside Iraq. He was also asked to submit a detailed report on the names of the banks in which the funds were deposited.

The prevention of the Kar group from operating the fields of Kirkuk in the wake of restrictions imposed by Baghdad in response to the Kurdish referendum, including the prohibition of direct international flights from the Kurdistan region and to him and the closure of border crossings.

The Kar group has operated some oil fields in Kirkuk since Kurdish forces took control of the city in mid-2014, when the Iraqi army collapsed in a confrontational confrontation.

In the first reaction to the decision, Negrvan Barzani expressed his surprise at "targeting a private sector company by the Federal Parliament." He said yesterday that his government is ready to submit full disclosure on the Kurdistan oil exports to the federal government.

"If Baghdad requires knowledge of oil accounts of the region, to pay the salaries of employees of Kurdistan, we are ready to provide the necessary facilities." Baghdad announced this week that it would start exporting oil from the Kirkuk fields to Iran's Kermanshah refinery by 30,000 barrels a day before the end of the month, and then rise to 60,000.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said recently that his government has discovered "a partnership between some corrupt and Kurdistan oil smugglers" and that it is working to achieve justice in the distribution of wealth. "

Sources say "the Arabs" that "popular protests in Sulaymaniyah against the delay in salary payments forced the provincial government to seek help from Baghdad." And expected to start Baghdad, the disbursement of the first batch of salaries of Kurdish employees in the middle of this month to employees of ministries of education and health in the region.

"We are ready to hand over the federal government lists of employees," Barzani said.

Rawabetcenter.com