BAGHDAD (AP) — The split is growing between Iraq’s
central government and the Kurds after the autonomous Kurdish
administration for the first time unilaterally sold oil from their
region in the north, a symbolic show of economic independence from
Baghdad that could build momentum for an outright break.
The
Kurdish north has feuded with the Baghdad government for years over
control of oil fields in the autonomous region, but it was not until
January this year that the Kurds began exporting its oil to Turkey
independently of the central government. A week ago, it went a step
further and sold the oil itself from a Turkish port, keeping the
revenues.
The Oil Ministry in Baghdad this week denounced the sale
as "smuggling" and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki called it "akin to robbery."
The Kurdish region’s
prime minister, Nechervan Barzani, vowed to continue sales. The region’s
policy "is to never take a step backward," he told Kurdish lawmakers
this week. He said his government wants a solution with Baghdad, but
repeated threats to hold an independence referendum in the north.
"We have other alternatives," he said. "We will not stop here."
Pro-independence
sentiment has long been strong in the Kurdistan, the three-province
territory in the north that is the heartland of Iraq’s ethnic Kurds. But
since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led invasion, Kurds
have largely sought to carve out a role within a federal Iraq, where
they make up 20 percent of the mostly Arab population. Iraq’s president
is a Kurd, and Kurdish parties have joined ruling coalitions dominated
by Shiite parties, despite repeated disputes over lands, resources and
power-sharing.
Tensions with al-Maliki have grown sharply since
the withdrawal of U.S. forces in late 2011, with Kurds accusing the
Shiite prime minister of consolidating power for himself. In parliament
elections earlier this month, al-Maliki gained enough seats in theory to
form a coalition of Shiite parties without any Kurds.
When the
Kurds began moving oil to Turkey independently in January, the Baghdad
government retaliated by cutting off the 17 percent share of the state
budget — some $20 billion in this year’s projected budget — that is
supposed to be given to the Kurdish region, creating an acute financial
crisis there.
With the sale last week of nearly 1.05 million
barrels of oil, "the Kurds want to end Baghdad blackmail," said Ghassan
al-Attiyah, chairman of the London-based Iraq Foundation for Development
and Democracy.
But the sale "further deepened the rift in a way
that puts the independence of Kurdistan a matter of time and not a
matter of principle anymore."
Washington warned the move could
threaten Iraq’s stability, saying exports should be with the appropriate
approval of Baghdad. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said all
sides should "help the country pull together and avoid actions that
might further exacerbate divisions."
Even the Kurdish region’s
second major party criticized the sale. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has long argued the Kurds’ future
lies with Baghdad.
Kurdistan and the mainly Shiite south are
Iraq’s two main oil-producing regions. The Kurds claim their region
holds reserves of 45 billion barrels, though that figure cannot be
confirmed independently. They say they plan to produce 1 million barrels
per day by 2015 and 2 million per day in 2019. Without Kurdistan, the
rest of Iraq produces about 3.5 million barrels daily.
Currently,
Kurdistan’s daily production is around 220,000 barrels, almost half of
which is pumped to Turkey for eventual export, according to a Kurdish
oil official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not
authorized to brief media.
Kurdistan has more than 50 of its own deals with international firms on developing its oil fields — much
to the anger of Bagdad.
Its
oil was shipped for years through a Baghdad-controlled pipeline to
Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, with the revenues going to Iraq’s
central budget. But shipments halted repeatedly in fights over revenue
sharing.
So in January, the Kurds began shipping through a
separate pipeline built in an agreement with Turkey. The oil is stored
in Ceyhan, and last week’s sale from it was the first. The government
accused the Kurds of previously selling oil shipped out by truck to
Turkey. The Kurds deny this, saying they have only traded small amounts
for refined oil products.
Baghdad has appealed to the Paris-based
International Chamber of Commerce against Turkey and vowed to sue the
Kurdish region and the traders and buyers involved.
The sale may
be in part a negotiating tactic by the Kurds to win a strong role in
al-Maliki’s next coalition government, said Sam Wilkin, a Dubai-based
analyst at Control Risks Group. "The Kurdish parties are now trying to
define their conditions and their position ahead of those negotiations."
But
Barzani’s government may have trouble backing down now. In February,
Baghdad offered a deal by which Kurdish oil would continue to move
through the separate pipeline with revenues going into the national
budget. The Kurds refused, insisting they want profits put in a separate
account.
"I find it unlikely, frankly, that Baghdad will make a
more generous offer," said Kirk H. Sowell, publisher of Inside Iraqi
Politics, a risk analysis newsletter.