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Unknown armed force enters North Oil Company in Kirkuk
From Rudaw.net-Erbil
02-03-2017 - ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An unknown armed force has entered North Oil Company (NOC) in Kirkuk, the head of Kirkuk's Oil, Energy and Industry Committee confirmed reports of the event.Ahmed Askari, head of Kirkuk’s oil, energy and industry committee in the Kirkuk Provincial Council confirmed the news to Rudaw, but did not provide further information.
However, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official told Rudaw that the force is of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
“Last night we had knowledge that the force would be moved and they have done it unilaterally,” said Mohammed Khurshid, head of the KDP branch in Kirkuk, referring to the PUK.
Khurshid added that the PUK officials have informed them that they would withdraw their forces, but did not explain why they moved the force and broke into the place.
Rudaw also contacted Simko Mohammed, spokesperson of the PUK Asayesh (Kurdish security) force to comment, but he also said he did not have knowledge of it.
The reported events come when the governor of Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim is in the United States and has not yet returned to the city.
“They ordered the shutdown of the pumping station for security reasons and that caused a halt of Kirkuk oil exports to Turkey,” Reuters reported a senior executive from the state-run North Oil Company as saying.
The force has controlled a pump station where extracted oil is stored from the oilfields, and its main purpose of the station is to export it to the Ceyhan port through a pipeline, Rudaw sources reported.
Asim Jihad, spokesperson of the Iraqi oil ministry said he was unaware of the incident.
NOC is a state company within the Ministry of Oil of Iraq. It operates in oil and gas production in Kirkuk, Nineveh, Erbil, Baghdad, and Diyala provinces as well as in parts of Hilla and Kut.
Under the terms of the 2014 December agreement between Erbil and Baghdad, NOC will export only parts of its oil through Kurdish pipelines to the Turkish Ceyhan port in return for KRG administrating larger portions of the oil production in the province.
In the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) latest visit to Baghdad in 2016, it was agreed that the oil under Baghdad control in Kirkuk would be exported through the Kurdistan Region and half the revenue would go to the region.
In the meantime, Baghdad has said in the past it was committed to abide an OPEC agreement to reduce its oil exportations, including that of Kirkuk.
On Feb. 20, the Iraqi oil ministry announced it signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran to study the export of part of Kirkuk’s oil through a pipeline to Iran.
Currently, the Kirkuk oil is being exported to the world market through the Ceyhan port in Turkey. Two oilfields in Kirkuk are under the control of the KRG and three are run by Iraq’s the North Oil Company.
The KRG exports 150,000 barrels of oil per day from Bai Hassan and Havana oilfields. The Iraqi government produces a similar number.
//www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/020320172
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