SOMO

Crude oil exports by Iraq state-oil marketer SOMO ran at an average rate of 3.5 million barrels per day in January, an Iraqi oil official have said.

Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Aug. 27 it expected to begin making regular payments to oil-exporting companies in the first half of September, in an apparent attempt to reassure foreign oil companies operating in the autonomous region.

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region (KRG) has ramped up independent oil sales since mid-June while cutting allocations to Iraq's state oil firm SOMO in an escalating dispute over export rights and budget payments.

Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO will sell its first cargoes out of the Turkish port of Ceyhan since March at the end of November after reaching a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government last week, market sources said late Nov. 26.

The oil will be a blend of Kurdish crudes, the sources said.

Turkey’s sole oil refiner Tüpraş will begin purchasing crude oil from northern Iraq shipped by pipeline and sold by the Iraqi state’s Oil Marketing Company (SOMO), Deputy General Manager Hasan Tan said on Nov. 21.

The oil will be transported to the Turkish Mediterranean port town of Ceyhan, Tan told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference.

Senior officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are expected to pay a visit to Turkey July 14 to receive the sale revenues from oil exports.

Iraq's Kurdistan region is ramping up independent oil exports, with a third tanker set to load a cargo of crude from its disputed pipeline as Iraq struggles to stop an insurgency by Islamist militants, its autonomous region.

Turkey has insisted that the export of Kurdish Iraqi oil to the world is Iraq’s internal business, downplaying opposition from Baghdad, which has accused Turkey of worsening the row over who controls Iraq’s resources.