Iraq/ Kurdistan: Iraqi Kurdistan Close to Economic Independence, Says Oil Minister

Nov 6, 2014 | Rudaw
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The Iraqi Kurds are within sight of economic if not political independence with oil exports expected to rise to 500,000 barrels a day by early next year, Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the Kurdish Regional Government, said on Thursday.

He said not even the sweep of Islamic State forces across northern Iraq since June had been able to prevent the flow of Kurdish oil, which had “increased by 60 per cent since the first bullets were fired.”

“We have sold 20 million barrels of oil. We’ve got paid for that,” he said on the final day of the Middle East Research Institute’s forum on regional affairs being held in Erbil. “There’s more demand than we can supply and there’s no stranded oil,”