Iraq Kurds tripling oil output while renewing Baghdad talks

ERBIL, Iraq (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s Kurds are boosting crude output threefold by the end of next year and plan soon to resume talks with the new central government, signaling that a battlefield partnership against insurgents is helping mend ties. The Kurds will increase production to 1 MMbpd by the end of 2015 from a current level of 320,000, said Sherko Jawdat, head of the natural resources committee in the Kurdish region’s parliament. Output will rise to 500,000 bpd by year-end, he said in an interview in Erbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Exports are currently 200,000 bpd, Jawdat said, without providing a forecast.

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