Economy of Iraqi Kurdistan

Genel Energy co-founder Nathaniel Rothschild has resigned from the Iraqi Kurdistan oil producer, the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the loss-making company.

Rothschild's departure follows the resignations of chairman and co-founder Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive, and of chief financial officer Ben Monaghan, a former J.P. Morgan banker.

Genel Energy, the Iraqi Kurdistan-focused oil producer co-founded by former BP boss Tony Hayward, on April 24 named Stephen Whyte to succeed the retiring Hayward in June.

Whyte, who has over 30 years of experience at Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and Portugal's Galp Energia, will join the board as non-executive director and chairman designate with immediate effect, Genel said.

Genel Energy, chaired by former BP head Tony Hayward, is betting on a major deal with Turkey to jointly develop gas fields in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which will help Ankara reduce its reliance on Russian supplies after relations soured with Moscow.

Iraq will not resume pumping crude through a Kurdish pipeline to Turkey unless it reaches a financial agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Iraqi oil minister said on March 22.

Genel Energy, the oil explorer chaired by former BP boss Tony Hayward, reported its biggest-ever annual loss after writing off $1 billion because its largest operational oilfield holds less oil than it previously thought.

Genel Energy Plc said it expected to book about $1 billion in impairment to the 2015 value of its Taq Taq oilfield in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, citing a reduced estimate for recoverable reserves there and falling oil prices, as reported by Reuters on Feb. 29. 

Shares in the company lost nearly a fourth of their value in early morning trade in London.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has announced the cessation of oil exported to the Ceyhan Port in Turkey after an attack on the pipeline transporting the oil has cost the region more than $14 million per day. 

Crude oil export from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey's Ceyhan Port has been interrupted since Feb. 16 following attacks on the export pipeline near the southeastern province of ?anl?urfa in Turkey, said the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a written statement on. Feb. 18. 

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said on Feb. 17 that it would halt independent oil sales if Baghdad pays its employees, but cast doubt on the federal government's ability to implement the proposal.

Iraq's federal government will pay the salaries of the cash-strapped Kurdish region's employees if it halts its independent oil exports, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said late Feb. 15.