ShaMaran Petroleum Corp (SHASF)

[Kinematik]

UPDATE 1-Top Iraq energy official says Kurds agree to export crude via SOMO
Wed Feb 19, 2014 2:46pm EST
(Adds quote, context)

BAGHDAD, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan has agreed to export crude via the country's main oil marketing body, Deputy Prime Minister for energy Hussain al-Shahristani said on Wednesday, potentially removing a major sticking point in a row with the central government.

The autonomous region's prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad on Monday, intensifying efforts to settle the dispute over exports of oil from Kurdistan via a new independent pipeline to Turkey.

The region had previously insisted it would export crude on its own terms, bypassing Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO).

"After hours of meetings, we have agreed that our brothers in the region will be represented in SOMO and agreed that this is the sole national outlet responsible for exporting oil," Shahristani said in an interview on Iraqi state television late on Wednesday. "This is an important step forward".

Baghdad has repeatedly threatened to sue Ankara and slash the Kurdistan's share of the national budget if exports go ahead through the pipeline without its consent.

The pipeline was completed late last year, and oil has since been pumped through it into storage tanks at Turkey's Ceyhan, but exports from the Mediterranean port are on hold to give diplomacy a chance.

Negotiations have carried on for months with little progress. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Isabel Coles; Eiting by David Evans and Alison Williams)

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