Iraq must execute a budget for people of Kurdistan Region, says APIKUR spox

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Col Myles B Caggins III, the spokesperson for APIKUR, on Sunday told Kurdistan24 that “the central government in Iraq must execute a budget for the people of the Kurdistan Region. APIKUR is trying to inform the White House and the US Congress of the importance of having a strong energy sector in the Kurdistan region.”

Regarding the recent Duhok flash floods, the spokesperson revealed that tomorrow HKN Energy – one of the APIKUR member companies – will donate 18 trucks of relief supplies to the people of Duhok.

“At APIKUR we believe that the [Iraqi] prime minister's visit to Washington DC will be the best opportunity for him to make a decision to restore full oil production and exports from the Kurdistan region,” Caggins III stated.

He also said that the region has forces from neighboring countries who are influential in Baghdad’s politics and the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court but “this is a chance for Prime Minister Sudani to show that he is leading a sovereign nation and political leaders to restore oil exports."

“The oil that was flowing through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline and exported out of Ceyhan Port was 0.4% of the world's oil, 450,000 barrels every day," the APIKUR official added and noted “at APIKUR we believe it is important for Kurdistan produced oil to be in the global markets instead of having illegal oil from Russia and Iran being sold at low prices across the world.”

He concluded by emphasizing that "there are groups inside and outside of Iraq who want to keep the Kurdistan region from having a strong economy. We in American English call this jealousy. As the Kurdistan region has begun to have prosperity and there are beautiful buildings and there's more international investment, I think there's jealousy from people in Baghdad who do not want the Kurdistan region to be strong.”