Masrour Barzani tells US energy secretary KRG backs pipeline exports

ERBIL — Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani discussed energy developments in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, reaffirming the KRG’s decision to resume oil exports through the Kurdistan pipeline and calling for U.S. support to protect energy infrastructure and lift the trade embargo on the region.

Barzani said he “reaffirmed the KRG’s decision to resume oil exports through the Kurdistan pipeline — supporting Iraq’s economic stability and contributing to global energy markets,” and called for continued coordination to stop attacks on oil companies operating in the region “in order to increase production and exports.”

He also used the meeting to press the unresolved trade embargo issue, calling for measures to “lift the trade embargo imposed on the Kurdistan Region” — a reference to Baghdad’s restriction of dollar transfers to Kurdish traders, which the KRG has said brought formal trade to a standstill and was a central condition in the oil export standoff resolved earlier this month.

Iraq resumed Kirkuk crude exports through the Kurdistan Region pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port at an initial capacity of 250,000 barrels per day earlier this month, after days of public dispute between Baghdad and Erbil. The pipeline has become critical to Iraq’s finances after regional conflict disrupted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off southern terminals near Basra that normally handle around 90 percent of government revenue. Oil prices have risen above $100 per barrel since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began Feb. 28.