Azerbaijan, Baku, March 27 / Trend A.Taghiyeva /
The central government of Iraq does not rule out that the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq is illegally exporting oil out of the country, a source in the government of Iraq told Trend on Tuesday.
"The government of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq often threatens the central government by complete cessation of oil supplies. However, the central government does not rule out that the administration is illegally exporting oil," said the source.
According to a source the economy of the administration will also suffer from the cessation of oil supplies. If this fact does not bother the Kurdish regional government it means that it has other means of replenishing the budget and this indicates a possible illegal of exports.
KRG has also stated that it intends to cut oil supplies from the current 65,000 to 50,000 barrels of oil per day and within a month it also plans to completely cut off oil supplies if the central government does not pay money to foreign oil companies operating in its territory.
The source also said that Iraq has no problems with payments to foreign companies. "We make payments to companies in connection with the accepted conditions specified in the agreement," said the source.
According to BP, proven oil reserves in Iraq amounted to 115 billion barrels in early 2011 and as a result the country ranks third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran. The area of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq has oil reserves amounting to 45 billion barrels.
According to BP, oil production in Iraq was 2.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2010 which is 0.6 per cent more than in 2009.