By Emre Peker
The Wall Street Journal - October 31, 2013
ISTANBUL—Turkey and Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurds agree on an adage
that gives Baghdad the fits: oil will always find a way to international
markets.
With energy-hungry Turkey just across the border, the oil-rich
fledgling Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, in northern Iraq is
eager to start pumping crude, to broaden its independence from the
central government and bolster its booming economy.
KRG’s Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami said Thursday that Erbil will
inevitably become a major exporter, outlining a path to export one
million barrels a day by 2015, and doubling that by 2020.
“As we all know, nowhere in the world can one million barrels [of
oil] per day remain stranded forever. So the oil export is a reality, it
is happening and will happen in the future,” Mr. Hawrami said. “Iraq’s
security and stability will be [determined by] the passage of the
revenue sharing law…We believe that during and after that election will
be a decisive period when people will have to agree on this
long-outstanding issue.”
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