PUK official: Kirkuk oil halt was a warning to Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kirkuk oil exports were disrupted on Thursday following the entry of Kurdish forces to the North Oil Company under the control of the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Kurdish forces early morning on Thursday seized control of Kirkuk’s Nigata and Taza Tarkiza oil fields and North Oil Company.

A Political Bureau member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Aso Mamand said in a press conference that after several hours of disruptions the oil exports were resumed.

Mamand added that this halt was "a warning for the Baghdad government to stop oppressing people of Kirkuk."

Iraqi government should respect and implement the agreements it singed with the local administration and the Ministry of Oil regarding the Kirkuk resources, he added.

The PUK official stated that the oil export has resumed and repeated that "We give a one week deadline to the Iraqi government to implement the oil agreements signed with the local administration."

He added that the government had agreed to construct an oil refinery in the province and stop transporting Kirkuk oil to other Iraqi provinces.

“We will not allow Kirkuk oil to be looted,” Mamand told reporters, adding that they had no intention of occupying oil fields since they have been protected by the Peshmerga forces in the past two years and a half.

The Iraqi government and Oil Ministry have not yet commented on Thursday’s incident.

On February 20, Iraq and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to build an oil pipeline to export Kirkuk oil through Iran.

Editing by Ava Homa