Kirkuk

Iraq has agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi has said.

At least 20 people were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of oil city Kirkuk, police and medical sources told Reuters on Nov. 21.

 Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that a referendum held on Kurdish independence was unconstitutional and that the results of the vote were void, a court spokesman said, quoted by Reuters.

A Turkish energy delegation has met with Iraqi top oil officials in Baghdad to discuss issues including the resumption of Kirkuk oil exports via the Turkish port of Ceyhan, Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Nov. 16.

Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said Iraq plans to increase production from oilfields in Kirkuk to one million barrels per day and has visited the Bai Hasan and Avana fields to order work be accelerated to restore operations soon, the ministry’s spokesman said on Nov. 12.

Iraqi security forces have found a mass grave with at least 400 victims of the Islamic State terrorist group in the northern province of Kirkuk.

Global crude prices have hit a three-week high as the conflict between Iraqi and Kurdish forces intensifies. Iraqi troops are advancing on the city of Kirkuk, reportedly seizing the region's oil fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6 percent to $52.29 per barrel, setting it on track for its highest settlement price since the end of September, according to FactSet data.

Iraqi government forces captured the major Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish referendum on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country, Reuters.

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces say that the takeover of Kirkuk is "a flagrant declaration of war" against the Kurds and warned that the Iraqi prime minister would pay a "heavy price" for triggering the conflict.

Turkey held a security meeting on Sept. 27 at the helm of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as tensions rise in the region over an Iraqi Kurdish referendum for independence.