Iraq’s parliament voted on Jan. 8 to ban Kurdish engineering firm Kar Group from operating Kirkuk’s oil fields, following Iraq’s recapture of the Kurdish-held oil region in October.
The Kurds have withdrawn from most Kirkuk oil fields since October, but the vote came after lawmakers said the Kar Group refused to cooperate with Iraq’s state-run North Oil Co. (NOC) and hand back the Khurmala oil field.
The Kurds claim Khurmala is located inside the official boundaries of the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
Kar Group could not be immediately reached for comment.
Parliament also authorized NOC to take over production and export operations at the field. That will potentially increase Iraq’s oil production and crude exports, although it was unclear by how much.
In addition, parliament requested the Iraqi central bank to track down cash deposited at banks outside Iraq that had been generated from Kurdish oil exports. Parliament asked the central bank to draft a detailed report on the names of banks used to deposit the cash.
Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk on Oct. 16, 2017, and took over the northern region’s oil fields, in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence which was widely opposed by Turkey, Iran and Western powers.
The move to ban Kar Group follows financial restrictions imposed by Baghdad in retaliation for the Kurdish referendum, including a ban on direct international flights to and from the Kurdish region and closing the border crossings.
Kirkuk crude sales have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields in October.
Kar Group had been operating some of the Kirkuk oil fields since Kurdish forces took control of the city in 2014 when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State.
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