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Oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan via Turkey to begin towards end of January

According to Iraqi Kurdistan authorities’ estimates, the monthly oil export from the autonomy will grow up to six million barrels by March

LONDON, January 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Oil deliveries from Iraqi Kurdistan to world markets via Turkey will start towards the end of this month, Reuters news agency reported on Thursday.

A Kurdistan autonomy government official said the first consignment of oil, amounting to about two million barrels, would be supplied via a recently inaugurated pipeline to the oil terminal on the Mediterranean coast in the Turkish city of Ceyhan for subsequent export.

According to Iraqi Kurdistan authorities’ estimates, the monthly oil export from the autonomy will grow up to six million barrels by March this year and to about 12 million barrels of oil towards the end of the year.

In November 2013, Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan and Nechrivan Barzani, Head of Government of the Iraqi Kurdistan, signed an agreement, under which the autonomy gains the possibility of delivering oil and natural gas to world markets via Turkey.

The oil supplies are a point at issue in the acute dispute between the central government of Iraq and the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. Baghdad's view is that only the central government has the right to monitor oil export and sign contracts. However, the Kurds believe that in the supply of oil they have a right to act independently, without contradicting Iraq's constitution.

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