Iraq's crude oil exports from the northern Kurdistan region have dropped to 75,000 barrels a day from the 175,000 barrels a day originally agreed between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, on payment issues, Iraqi and Kurdish officials said Monday.

The KRG has started since last year pumping crude oil via the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey . In June 2011 Kurdish oil exports went up as high as 175,000 barrels a day but since then they have been declining because of problems related to Baghdad 's payment to the KRG for the sold Kurdish crude oil.

The central government in Baghdad agreed with the Kurds last year that Kurdistan 's exports would be averaging 175,000 barrels a day in 2012 and that figure has been fixed in the country's budget for this year.

"We don't know why they reduced their export to 75,000 barrels a day," the Iraqi official from Baghdad government told Dow Jones Newswires.

A Kurdish official knowledgeable about such matters, however, blamed the decline in Kurdistan oil exports on the central government in Baghdad . "The federal government has made no payments to the KRG since May 2011. It currently owes well in excess of $1 billion," the official said.

Baghdad said it had paid them last year twice - a total of around $500 million.
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