An arbitration ruling in Baghdad's favour last week not only resulted in the effective shut-in of all crude exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq - it also handed the federal government critically important leverage in its push to retake control of the region's oil and gas resources. The ruling, which was first reported by Argus on 24 March, brought to a close a case that had dragged on for almost nine years. In 2014, Iraq made a claim at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) that Turkey, by allowing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to export its crude through the Kirkuk- Ceyhan pipeline without Baghdad's consent, had violated the terms of a 1973 bilateral agreement.
展开▼
