Kurds Pump Oil in Northern Iraq

Historical events often go bleow the radar, this is one of them The Kurds in Northern Iraq were clearly the biggest winners of the war, now their victory is almost complete with the pumping of oil and the revenues:

It is the first time Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region has officially exported oil out of the country.For years, the central Iraqi government in Baghdad has been at odds with the Kurds, arguing they do not have the right to exploit oil in territory under Kurdish control. Kurdish officials have ignored Baghdad's warnings, and signed dozens of agreements with small foreign oil companies.The two sides finally reached an agreement on the issue last month.

"I believe that the cooperation between northern Iraq and Baghdad administrations is useful and beneficial for all. Therefore this strategic cooperation will continue," said Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government. He was speaking in Kurdish before a hall filled with dignitaries, at a glitzy ceremony complete with swirling spotlights and a bleached-blond Turkish female master of ceremonies.Audience members watched a live video feed showing workers opening up the pipeline.

The oil is being exported from the Taq Taq field in the province of Irbil. Kurdish officials and representatives from Genel Enerji, a Turkish company working in Taq Taq, said initially only 40,000 barrels of oil would be exported a day. That is a fraction of the 1.8 million barrels a day currently being exported by Iraq. But at the ceremony, the oil minister in Iraqi Kurdistan, Ashti Hawrami, announced Kurdish exports could increase to as many as 450,000 barrels a day.

"As much as Baghdad might like to object, economy (sic) reality necessitates that it go along with the Kurds -- for now," wrote Joost Hiltermann, an Iraq expert with the International Crisis Group, in a recent article on Foreign Policy.com.

The deal:

Under the arrangement, the Iraqi government will get the bulk of the earnings from Kurdish oil exports, while the Kurdistan Regional Government will be allotted 17 percent of the revenues.The cooperation of neighboring Turkey has been critical for the export deal to go through. In the past, the Turkish government has vehemently opposed any move by the Iraqi Kurds to develop oil resources, because of Turkish fears that the oil revenues would allow the Kurds to establish an independent state.

What a marvelous solution, the resources divided along Federal lines allowing for the development of areas independent of the central government in Baghdad. We have come a long way from Saddam and the totalitarian regime he ran. In other news the American pull out from the cities is going ahead for June 30th:

SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) — United States combat forces will vacate all Iraqi cities on schedule by the end of this month, including the insurgent holdout of Mosul, the commander of American forces in Iraq said Tuesday.The commander, Gen. Ray Odierno, said the combat troops were on track to leave all cities, as specified in a January agreement with Iraq, including Mosul.“We’ve made some good progress up there in the last several months,” he said. “I feel much better about where we’re at in terms of security in Mosul. We’ll be able to turn it over.”

There had been some talk of staying past the June 30th in Mosul, apparently not.