Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region halted crude exports on Sunday, nearly a week after it condemned a new oil and gas law approved by the central government, Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi said.

Kurdish authorities quickly said in a statement, however, that the disruption was because of technical difficulties, and not due to policy disagreements with Baghdad.

"The government of the Kurdistan region today halted oil exports without giving reasons," Luaybi told AFP on the sidelines of an oil conference in the Jordanian capital.

"This is a great loss for the Iraqi economy, as well as the Kurdish and Iraqi people in general."

An oil ministry official told AFP that Kurdistan's exports of 150,000 barrels of crude per day "dropped in the past two weeks to around 55,000 bpd."

The development came after Kurdistan condemned the draft law, which was approved by the central government in August, and called on parliament to reject it.

"The presidency of the Kurdistan region condemns this manoeuvre and calls on the council of ministers to withdraw the draft immediately, because it contradicts the constitution," it said in a statement.

On Sunday, the region's natural resources ministry said in a statement that "there has been no policy decision for suspending oil exports from Kurdistan."

It continued: "Over the last two days, the... export pipeline experienced serious technical difficulties causing disruption of the exports from the Kurdistan region temporarily."

Kurdish leaders and the central government have squabbled over a number of oil-related issues, including payments, revenue sharing and Baghdad's refusal to recognise the dozens of oil contracts Arbil has signed with international energy firms.

There is also the issue of oil-rich Kirkuk province, which Kurdish authorities want incorporated into their autonomous region, while officials in Baghdad strongly oppose such a move.

The cabinet passed the draft oil law, which would govern the sector and divide responsibility between Baghdad and Iraq's provinces, and submitted it to the Iraqi parliament on August 28.

burs-psr/srm

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