The Iraqi federal government is institutionalizing its control over the Kurdistan region of Iraq through its new oil-salary deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but several roadblocks to implementation remain, including crucial final agreements with oil companies operating in the region. On July 17, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved a new deal with the KRG that it hopes will pave the way to resume oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, which have been offline since March 2023. As part of the deal, the KRG will deliver 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) for export via the Ceyhan oil terminal in Turkey. The deal allocates an additional 50,000 bpd of production for local consumption in the Kurdistan Region. The KRG will hand over to SOMO any production from the Kurdistan Region that exceeds 280,000 bpd, the level that the region has...
