Iraqi government delegation visits Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw on Friday received a top delegation of the Iraqi government at Erbil International Airport, according to a statement from the governor's office.

The delegation includes Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Iraqi Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ahmed Jassim al-Asadi and their accompanying delegations.

The purpose of the visit is to assess the conditions of the refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) camps in Erbil and Duhok. In addition, meetings have been scheduled  with Kurdistan Region officials in order to exchange views between Erbil and Baghdad.

Several Kurdish delegations have visited Baghdad recently for budget and petroleum talks, particularly regarding the drafting of the hydrocarbon bill.

Per the budget deal, the Iraqi oil marketing company, known as SOMO, would be in charge of selling Kurdish oil following years of independent exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Erbil has been transferring 50,000-60,000 barrels of oil daily to Baghdad in line with the agreement it had inked with Baghdad, which will be responsible for paying employee salaries as well as covering other public expenditures, a senior KRG official told Kurdistan 24 recently.

Before the stoppage, the Kurdistan Region was exporting over 400,000 barrels of oil per day through a pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

The management of oil and gas has been a contentious issue between Erbil and Baghdad for over a decade.

Iraq passed its three-year budget bill in June, considered to be one of the country’s largest budgets.