Kurdistan May Stop Crude Exports to Iraq

The Kurdistan Regional Government has said crude exports from the semi-autonomous region have dropped to 50,000 barrels a day and may cease in a month if the central government refuses to pay about $1.5bn owed to producers.

The government also called on foreign companies including BP to not make separate agreements with Iraq’s central government to develop oil fields in and around the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. A dispute over oil revenues between Iraq’s government and Kurdish authorities led to a yearlong halt in exports from the region that ended in February 2011, Bloomberg has reported.