Iraq's oil minister Hayyan Abdulghani said progress has been made in negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and international oil companies (IOCs) on resuming crude exports via Turkey.
"There is a progress in these negotiations, and we hope that in the coming few days we will reach a final understanding in this regard," Abdulghani told Iraqi state-run TV channel Iraqiya.
Abdulghani attended a meeting in Baghdad on 9 June with representatives from the KRG's natural resources ministry and most of the IOCs that operate in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The talks were aimed at reaching a deal to resume exports of northern Iraqi crude via Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Around 470,000 b/d of crude exports from the Kurdistan region have been absent from international markets since March last year after Turkey closed the pipeline linking oil fields in northern Iraq to Ceyhan. The closure followed an international tribunal ruling which said Turkey had breached a bilateral agreement with Baghdad by allowing Kurdish crude to be exported without the federal government's consent.
Sunday's tripartite meeting involved representatives from all but one of the IOCs that operate in the Kurdish region. Norway's DNO, which holds a 75pc stake in northern Iraq's Tawke and Pehsakbir fields, was absent, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
An oil ministry source denied that a condition of the IOCs' attendance at the meeting was that they provide a copy of their production-sharing contracts (PSCs) with the KRG. A source close to the IOCs said it had been a condition but was eventually dropped.
Baghdad has previously proposed a middle ground agreement that would see it amend its federal budget to allow it to pay IOCs operating in Kurdistan, in return for a compromise with the KRG and the IOCs over the recovery costs they claim for oil produced in the region.
A resumption of northern Iraq crude exports could complicate Baghdad's relations with Opec+, given Iraq is already struggling to comply with its Opec+ commitments. It recently submitted a plan outlining how it will compensate for producing above its target in the first quarter.
Iraq's production rose by 20,000 b/d to 4.16mn b/d in May, according to Argus estimates, leaving it 160,000 b/d above its target.
