Iraqi Kurdistan could raise oil production to
200,000 barrels a day by the end of 2010 and hopes to resume crude
exports, the autonomous region's energy minister was quoted as saying
Friday.
"Volumes could be quickly ramped up to 100,000
barrels a day and hit 200,000 barrels a day by year end,"
Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami told the Middle East
Economic Survey in its edition to appear Monday.
Iraqi
Kurdistan halted oil exports--of about 60,000 barrels a day, through
a pipeline to neighboring Turkey--in October last year due to a
payment dispute with Baghdad.
On May 18, the federal cabinet
approved a draft deal hammered out by Hawrami and Iraq's deputy oil
minister for upstream Abdulkarim al-Laibi that would allow investors
in the Kurdish region to be paid for costs and could pave the way for
exports to resume.
But Hawrami stressed the deal with the
central government was only provisional until a wider oil agreement
is reached, adding Iraq's political deadlock after inconclusive March
elections was an obstacle.
"I am optimistic, but as you
know we are in the process of forming a new government in Baghdad, so
there is a question over whether they will give the issue the
attention it requires," Hawrami told MEES.
"We all
need this. Iraq needs the revenues."
Companies
exploiting Kurdish oil fields, which produce about 20,000 barrels a
day, include Norway's DNO International ASA (DNO.OS), Turkey's Genel
Energy and state-owned Chinese firm China Petroleum & Chemical
Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec.