ERBIL, Iraq, June 1 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Monday to launch oil exports from two oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq announced May 9 oil exports from its regional fields would begin Monday from the Taq Taq and Tawke oil fields.
The Tawke Field will begin exports at an initial rate of around 60,000 barrels per day, while the Taq Taq field north of Kirkuk will truck oil at the rate of 40,000 barrels per day to Turkish ports.
Talabani, along with top officials with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, met with Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to Iraq, to attend the inauguration of Kurdish oil exports, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.
Oil exports from Kurdish fields are a contentious issue between the KRG and the Baghdad central government, which sees unilateral moves in the Kurdish energy sector as a violation of the Iraqi constitution.
The Iraqi Oil Minister on May 11, however, issued letters to the KRG permitting oil exports from the fields. Meanwhile, Kurdish lawmakers are describing a decision to deposit Kurdish oil revenue into federal coffers as a positive move.
"The exportation of oil reflects the commitment of the Kurdistan region to the articles of the Iraqi constitution, which stipulate that the oil and gas are owned by the Iraqi people," Mohsen al-Saadoun told VOI.
Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad, for his part, announced engineers resumed pumping gas from fields in the energy-rich city of Kirkuk for the first time in six years.
