Pressure grows on Iraq to set aside infighting and redirect vital oil exports blocked by Iran war
Deal between Baghdad and Erbil only way to overcome impasse and avert economic disaster, analysts and officials say. Iraq can restart critical oil exports cut off by the Middle East conflict, if the central government can reach an agreement with a semi-autonomous region bordering Turkey, analysts and officials have told The National . A deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to ship crude through the northern Kirkuk fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan would compensate for losses worth billions, caused by deadly strikes across the country and Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, they said. Iranian attacks on oil tankers in Iraq's southern Basra forced authorities to halt operations at all the country’s oil terminals earlier this week, as the deadly war pitting the US and Israel against Iran dragged Iraq into the equation. Iraq's crude oil production dropped to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), Oil Minister Hayan...