BAGHDAD, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Baghdad opened the door for foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdish north to get paid under a new deal for exports through Turkey, a spokesman said.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry in a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government paved the way for the resumption of oil exports starting in February.
Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said the agreement paves the way for foreign oil companies to get paid for their work in the Kurdish north, Bloomberg News reports.
The agreement calls for about half of the petroleum products produced in the Kurdish provinces to be used for domestic demand with the rest exported through Turkish ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
Oil flowed for just four months after it started in June 2009 because of legal disputes between the Kurdish government and Baghdad.
Addax Petroleum and DNO stopped exporting crude because they weren't getting paid for their work. Foreign oil companies, Bloomberg News adds, are owed around $400 million for their work in Iraqi Kurdistan.
DNO said after Iraqi lawmakers reached a power-sharing deal on a new government in November that 2011 would be productive for the company in Iraq.
