Fighting between central government troops and Kurdish forces has hampered pipeline exports in OPEC‘s second-biggest producer.
Iraq’s prime minister rejected an offer to hold talks with Kurdish officials Thursday, after authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region asked lawmakers in Baghdad to “freeze” the result of last month’s independence referendum.
Baghdad has repeatedly insisted September’s vote, in which people decisively backed secession, was both illegitimate and illegal.
Shortly after the vote, Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, ordered the country’s military to retake disputed territories owned by the Kurds — including the region of Kirkuk. The military maneuvers have since sparked clashes that have left dozens dead and injured many more.
BP began working in a technical capacity in Iraq’s Kurdish region in 2013, before pulling back amid an escalation of geopolitical uncertainty two years later.
“The pipeline goes out through Kurdistan so it is not clear to me but we work and live in a very volatile industry and we are comfortable working in places with political change. So I wouldn’t rule it out but I don’t think anything is going to happen soon,” Dudley concluded.
