Kurdish minister pushes for Iraqi oil deal

* username: rupertbu

Shares in DNO, the Norwegian oil company, rose more than 16 per cent on Monday after authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan said they were ready to resolve a dispute with Iraq’s central government over distribution of oil revenues and payment of foreign operators.

But the statement appeared to be a political overture, not a binding plan capable of breaking the deadlock that has prevented full-scale exploitation of Iraqi Kurdistan’s estimated 40bn barrels of oil.

Ashti Hawrami, oil minister for the autonomous Kurdistan regional government (KRG) of Iraq, said in the statement that the KRG was prepared to resume international oil exports after holding a “serious dialogue” with Baghdad over how to pay operators such as DNO and Turkey’s Genel Energy.