The economic expert, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, confirmed that "the Parliamentary Finance Committee's vote to amend the paragraphs related to the Kurdistan region will complicate the relationship between the region and the center."
Al-Marsoumi said in a post that NINA followed: “The Finance Committee amended (Article 13 / second / a), which stipulates, according to the government copy sent, obliging the Kurdistan region to export no less than 400,000 barrels,” noting that “the text of the article after the amendment is that the region is obligated to deliver the crude oil produced in its fields at a rate of not less than 400,000 barrels per day is sent to the Ministry of Oil to be exported through SOMO or used locally in Iraqi refineries."
He added, "The amendment added a kind of complication to the relationship between the center and the region because of the technical difficulties related to the delivery of the region's oil to the center on the one hand, and because of the region's stripping of the authority to export oil on the other hand."
Al-Marsoumi indicated that “paragraph C of the same article was also amended, after it stipulated the commitment of the Ministry of Finance to pay the region’s dues monthly and to make accounting settlements on a quarterly basis, meaning that the region was receiving its dues in the 2023 budget,” noting that “the new amendment is necessary that the region must pay its oil and non-oil revenues before receiving its share of the budget."
He continued, "Article 14 was also amended, after it used to provide for the deposit of the total revenues of the region's oil in one bank account. It now requires the region to deposit oil revenues in a bank account opened in the Central Bank of Iraq, while the region was seeking to open the account in Citi Bank ".
He stressed that "the region has prevented the extraction of oil from the fields of Kirkuk and Nineveh, which are currently under its control, which currently constitutes more than a third of the region's production of crude oil."
Source: National Iraqi News Agency
