Kurdistan Region’s federal kerosene due next week at 62,000 dinars

ERBIL — Baghdad’s winter kerosene for the Kurdistan Region will arrive next week, and households will pay 62,000 dinars (about $41 at the official rate) for a 200-liter share plus transport, a Kurdistan Regional Government official said in remarks published Thursday.

Falah Sayed Mawlud, director general of oil and minerals at the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources, told the state-run newspaper Al-Sabah that the 50 million liters Baghdad has approved would go next week to Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah and Halabja governorates. Distribution will start in mountainous and rugged areas, he said.

The allocation does not cover the Region’s needs, Mawlud said. At 200 liters a household, the Region needs about 269 million liters, so the federal shipment covers less than a fifth. His ministry will keep pressing the federal Oil Ministry for more, he said.

Kerosene, known locally as white oil, is the main heating fuel for most households in the Region, where winter temperatures drop sharply in the mountains.

Baghdad is also sending 760 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas, the household gas used for cooking and heating, Mawlud said. Once transport is arranged, Erbil will get 300 tons, Sulaymaniyah and Halabja 260 tons between them and Duhok 200 tons.

The governorates have begun choosing companies to transport the kerosene and have written to the federal Oil Ministry, he said.

The cold has already reached the Region. Many households have yet to buy kerosene, and others have bought only small amounts while they wait for the subsidized supply. On the open market, a 200-liter barrel now costs more than 350,000 dinars (about $210 at the street rate), more than five times the subsidized price, 964media found.

Sulaymaniyah governorate alone needs 110 million liters, mountainous areas included, more than twice the whole federal shipment, a local fuel official told 964media last week. A kerosene seller in the city put the price of a barrel at 330,000 dinars on Oct. 31 and expected it to rise once the cold set in.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Nov. 1 ordered the release of the Region’s subsidized winter kerosene, the Oil Ministry said, without saying how much fuel the Region would receive or when.

Last winter, the KRG set an allocation of 200 liters per household at a subsidized 103,500 dinars (about $78 at the time), starting in high-altitude areas. By Jan. 4 this year, nearly 135 million liters had gone to 674,501 families, the Natural Resources Ministry said, and another 415,222 households were still waiting. Federally supplied kerosene reached the Region’s cities from January, at 100 liters for 31,000 dinars (about $23 at the time).

Zaidi on Monday ordered the federal Oil Ministry to supply the Region’s household gas until the attack-hit Khor Mor gas field resumes production, acting on a request from the KRG’s Natural Resources Ministry.

A suspected drone attack late Sunday on the field, in the Qadir Karam subdistrict of Sulaymaniyah governorate’s Chamchamal district, hit its loading depot for liquefied petroleum gas, which loads 1,500 metric tons a day, field sources told 964media. It also halted the gas that feeds the Region’s power stations, knocking nearly 3,000 megawatts off the grid.

Federal authorities say they have identified where the attack was launched from and who was involved but have given no details. No group has claimed responsibility.