KRG Ministry of Natural Resources

Statement by the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources

- 9 August 2014

- Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

- The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) attaches the highest priority to the safety and security of all oil industry workers and their operations in the Kurdistan Region. 

The MNR remains in constant contact with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces regarding the deterioration of security on the Region’s borders and it continues to share all relevant information with its contractors.

Until now, the enemy has not been able to target oil operations in the Region, but as a precautionary measure some of the exploration activities in areas abutting potential combat zones have been temporarily halted and staff relocated.

However, oil production in the Region remains unaffected, and is being delivered to both the domestic and export markets. Indeed, the KRG is expecting that the producing companies will ramp up production in the coming weeks as ongoing export infrastructure improvements come online as planned.

The producing companies continue to receive their share of production and revenue from all the domestic uses of the oil, and they have been advised to also work on the export sales for their share of the exported oil.

Meanwhile, the MNR would like to remind the operating and the service companies working in the Region not to take any steps without close coordination with the Ministry of Natural Resources, as this may lead to unnecessary complications and in some cases could harm the operators’ own interests as well as the KRG’s overall needs.

The MNR is continuing with oil exports and sales via Ceyhan and welcomes the support and investment of the oil companies in the Kurdistan Region.