Official: Russia, Iraq to decide on Rosneft, Kurdistan soon

MOSCOW, Nov 15 (PRIME) -- Russia and Iraq will soon arrive to an acceptable decision on negotiations and agreements between oil major Rosneft and Iraq’s autonomous region Kurdistan, Iraq's ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi said in an interview with PRIME on Wednesday.

“There will be decisions, which are to satisfy both sides -- the government of Iran and the government of Russia. We… have a firm and clear position that the Kurdistan region is part of Iraq. We do not oppose cooperation with any part of Iraq… but it must involve the federal government,” he said.

Somo is the country’s national oil producer and the only company with the right to produce and sell oil in Iraq, he also said.

Hadi said that the Iraqi government has no obligations under agreements signed with the autonomous region and asked to revise all agreements between Rosneft and Iraqi Kurdistan by signing them with the federal government or by finding another mutually acceptable mechanism.

On Tuesday, Rosneft said in a report that in 2017 it provided a U.S. $1.3 billion advance payment to the government of Iraqi Kurdistan under a contract to supply oil to the Russian company in 2017-2019. In October, Rosneft said that it had signed documents necessary to initiate a product sharing agreement on five blocks on the territory.

Also on Tuesday, Iraq’s oil and energy parliament committee condemned contracts between Rosneft and Iraqi Kurdistan as illegal and asked the Russian company to abolish them.

End