Trend: Oil and gas: Riches and risks of Iraq's Kurdish autonomy

Recently, the question of the world's major energy companies entering the oil sector of Iraq's Kurdish autonomy and as a consequence, the deterioration of relations between the central government of Iraq and the Kurdish administration has become more and more topical.

The media outlets reported that the Russian Gazprom signed two agreements on the development of fields in the Kurdish autonomy, as previously done by U.S. companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron and French Total.

Shortly before this, Turkey began to import oil from the autonomy. However, neither Turkey nor the world's oil companies were stopped by the threats of Baghdad on termination of cooperation and the application of sanctions against them.

Proven oil reserves of Kurdish autonomy are 45 billion barrels, which is almost equal to reserves of Libya (47 billion barrels) and account for nearly one-third of the total oil reserves of Iraq. The main deposits are Atroush and Touke, which are located in the area of Sulaymaniyah. MORE