Iraqi and Turkish energy officials to meet amid oil row

BAGHDAD - Reuters

This file photo shows a worker adjusting the valve of an oil pipe at Najaf oil refinery in Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, Oct 3, 2013. REUTERS photo

Iraqi and Turkish energy officials are expected to meet in Baghdad Dec. 1 after Ankara agreed a package of energy deals with Iraq's autonomous northern region that the central government says are illegal.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız will meet Iraq's deputy prime minister for energy, Hussain al-Shahristani, an official in Shahristani's office said, without giving details.

It will be Yıldız's first visit to Iraq since his plane was denied permission to land by Baghdad late last year when he tried to attend an energy conference in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey's courtship of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has infuriated the central government Baghdad, which says it has sole authority to manage Iraqi energy resources.

Shahristani said Nov. 28 any energy deal with Arbil would be "an encroachment on the sovereignty of Iraq."

Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a multi-billion-dollar energy package last week, sources close to the deal said on Friday, that will help transform the Iraqi region into an oil and gas powerhouse.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Nov. 30 that Ankara and Arbil had "agreed on some trade deals" but had yet to completely finalise them and said that Turkey would seek Baghdad's cooperation on the issue.

Baghdad says Kurdish efforts towards oil independence could lead to the break-up of the country and the dispute has also raised concern in Washington.

Turkey, hungry for energy and dependent on imports for almost all of its needs, says Iraqi Kurdistan's resources will help diversify its energy supplies and reduce its ballooning $60 billion annual energy bill.