The Iraqi government asked BP to develop oil fields in Kirkuk in
northern Iraq which came under the central government's control on
Tuesday, a statement from Iraq's oil ministry said on Wednesday.
On
Monday, government forces captured disputed areas held by the Kurdish
Regional Government (KRG) and Kurdish Peshmerga forces including the
oil-rich Kirkuk city, an area which had long been the subject of dispute
between Baghdad and the Erbil-based KRG.
"The ministry now holds also oil wells and facilities in Kirkuk,” Iraqi oil ministry spokesperson Asim Cihad said on Tuesday.
The
ministry called on BP to urgently make the necessary plans for
developing Kirkuk oil fields, adding that the central government has the
right to develop oil fields in all cities of Iraq.
The KRG, led
by President Masoud Barzani, has enjoyed close ties with Ankara and has
used a pipeline stretching from northern Iraq to the Turkish
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan to export oil, a mainstay of the KRG
economy.
However, the illegitimate independence referendum on
Sept. 25 -- held in KRG-controlled areas across northern Iraq, including
those disputed with the central government in Baghdad -- has threatened
this relationship.
The KRG's net income from exports through the
Ceyhan port amounted to almost $416 million in October 2016, according
to the KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources Monthly Export and Production
Report in 2016 - the ministry's latest monthly oil report released.
The
report stated that the KRG exported 19 million barrels of crude oil in
total and an average of nearly 614 thousand barrels of oil per day in
the month of October last year through the port of Ceyhan in Turkey.
(Anadolu Agency)