Iraqi Kurdistan to open new pipeling in 2013

Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region expects to start exporting oil from its fields along a new pipeline to the Turkish border when the line is complete in August 2013, the region's natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami said on Sunday.

The region has been in dispute with Baghdad's central government over who controls the country's oil, with Baghdad saying the Iraqi central government is the only one responsible for exports.

"In August 2013, we will be able to directly export crude from the Kurdish region's fields," Hawrami said at an oil conference in Kurdistan. "We will be responsible for exporting oil. It will still be Iraqi oil."

Kurdistan, which has its own government and armed forces, in April halted crude exports because Baghdad was not fulfilling agreements to pay companies working in the region, worsening their long-running dispute over autonomy and oil rights.

(Reuters)