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No preparation yet for pipeline restart, sources say

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Drone attacks have cut Kurdistan oil output

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Iran-backed militias suspected of conducting the attacks

(Adds more source comments, context from paragraph 5)

By Ahmed Rasheed and Anna Hirtenstein

BAGHDAD/LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - A restart of Iraq's

Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter

said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on

Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in

negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted

flows from the north of the country to Turkey's port of Ceyhan.

The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before

the pipeline closure in March 2023.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan

would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to

Turkey despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the

region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies

working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the

receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which

operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made

for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart

the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at

Turkey's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the

terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour

Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding

with the federal government and it was awaiting financial

details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption

in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded

that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged

and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any

agreement.

On Friday Genel Energy and Gulf Keystone Petroleum ( GUKYF )

declined to comment, while DNO, Hunt Oil and

HKN Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DRONE ATTACKS

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones

this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as

the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed

responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region

and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping

in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's

DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service

said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO,

which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho

area that borders Turkey.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the

region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two

energy officials said.