Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 10 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /
Turkey and Iraqi Kurdish autonomy have begun exchanging oil and related products as from January 8, Kurdistan Region Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami said, the Turkish news agency Cihan reported today.
He said the Kurdish autonomy will supply oil to Turkey. In return, Turkey will export oil products, particularly petrol and gas oil to the autonomy.
Hawrami said that according to the agreement reached between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish autonomy, the autonomy will provide Turkey with three million barrels of oil per day and 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year in the future.
Earlier, officials in the Iraqi government criticised the cooperation between Kurdish autonomy and Turkey in the field of power engineering.
According to BP, the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq has oil reserves of 45 billion barrels.
Relations between the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq and Baghdad deteriorated in October 2011 after US-based Exxon Mobil received permission from the Kurdish authorities on the exploration and production of oil in this Iraqi region. Baghdad considered the deal illegal and warned the company that if it did not abandon the agreement with the Kurds, its deals with the central Iraqi government may be revised.