Iraqi Kurdistan has halted its oil exports due to a payment dispute with the central government in Baghdad, the natural resources minister of the autonomous northern region said Wednesday.
The two sides have clashed over how oil revenues should be distributed, and Kurdish authorities have said they won't resume crude exports until Baghdad pays the foreign energy companies which are pumping the oil.
"Oil exports from Kurdistan's fields have been stopped until an agreement is reached with the Iraqi Oil Ministry for mechanisms to pay the dues of the oil companies working in the region," Ashti al-Hawrami told AFP.
Hawrami said in a letter posted on the regional government's Web site that Norway's DNO International ASA (DNO.OS) and Turkey's Genel Enerji hadn't been paid for their exports because the oil sale revenues went directly to Baghdad.