Iraq's federal authorities have filed a complaint against its semi-autonomous region in the north of the country for signing gas contracts with two U.S. companies, two officials told Agence-France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday.
Oil exports have been a major point of tension between Baghdad and Irbil, with a major pipeline through Türkiye shut since 2023 over legal disputes and technical issues.
The report by AFP followed a similar report a day earlier by Reuters saying that the Iraqi federal government's Oil Ministry has sued the government of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG) over oil and gas contracts it signed with U.S. firms, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the matter and a document.
Regional Prime Minister Masrour Barzani announced the signing of two major energy deals valued at "tens of billions of U.S. dollars" during a visit to Washington in May.
Iraq's Oil Ministry immediately slammed the agreements, saying they constitute a "clear breach of Iraqi law" and that all oil and gas development must go through the federal government.
The legal challenge is the latest obstacle to the resumption of flows through the Iraq-Türkiye oil pipeline that have been halted since March 2023, despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.
An Iraqi government official, who requested anonymity to speak on the matter, told AFP that a lawsuit had been filed before Baghdad's al-Karkh commercial court.
An Iraqi Kurdish official confirmed the complaint, saying it called for "the cancellation of the contracts."
Barzani oversaw the signing of two energy agreements worth a combined $110 billion over their lifetimes with U.S. companies HKN Energy and Western Zagros, a Reuters report said.
The agreements involve the development of the Miran and Topkhana-Kurdamir gas fields in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya.
Baghdad has said direct engagement between companies and the KRG without the federal government's inclusion violates the Constitution. It has called the deals "null and void."
The KRG has defended the agreements, saying they were based on existing contracts.
Oil exports were previously independently sold from the region, without the approval or oversight of the central administration in Baghdad, through the port of Ceyhan in Türkiye.
But the region's oil exports have been at a standstill since March 2023, when the arbitration tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris deemed exports by the regional government to be "illegal."
The ICC ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion over what it said were unauthorized exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.
Türkiye, on the other hand, said the body had recognized most of Ankara's demands.
In October 2023, Türkiye said the pipeline was ready for operations and that it was up to Iraq to resume flows.
Despite talks earlier this year that exports through the pipeline might begin, an issue over payments between regional and central governments in Iraq stalled the reopening of flows.
