Alaa al-Yassiri said Iraq currently has a capacity of 3,700,000 barrels per day and this will reach 8 million bpd by 2027.
The Kurdistan Region sells between 430,000 and 450,000 bpd internationally, Yassiri explained, adding SOMO did not have the information on the amount of the Region’s oil sales that go through overland border crossings.
The Region will not be able to produce 40 percent of the amount it currently produces by 2035, Yassiri said.
He announced the Region sells its oil at a rate of 11 percent less than SOMO and pays more money for its exports.
Yassiri stated SOMO has formed a committee over the Federal Supreme Court’s ruling against the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports.
He stayed the Iraqi government had been soft with the Region and suggested solutions to the issue, but the Kurdistan Region responded with a statement announcing Erbil does not consider the federal court constitutional.
SOMO informed its advisors to file legal complaints through international law offices in Paris and London against oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, Yassiri said, and SOMO is in communication with banks spending oil money in the Region.
The SOMO director predicted a court in Paris will reach a verdict against Turkey over the matter of the Kurdistan Region’s oil sales and following this ruling, Ankara will need to immediately stop exporting the Region’s oil or compensate Baghdad.
He added, SOMO has the authority to suspend the Kurdistan Region’s bank accounts and will do so if necessary.
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