Session (14) First Term / First Year

The Council of Representatives held on (17/3/2026) its fourteenth session of the first legislative term of the first legislative year of the sixth electoral cycle, chaired by Speaker Haibat Al-Halbousi, with (196) MPs in attendance. The session included:

_ The MPs recited Surat Al-Fatiha in memory of the souls of Iraq's martyrs.

_ The taking of the constitutional oath by Mr. Ammar Yousif Al-Samarrai, replacing MP Haitham Al-Zahwan, after the Council approved adding the item to the session agenda.

_ The Council discussed the issue of oil exports through the Turkish Ceyhan outlet and other outlets, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil, the Ministry Undersecretaries for Extraction and Distribution Affairs, the Director General of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) and the Director General of the Oil Products Distribution Company, based on a request submitted by 110 MPs.

_ The Speaker called for shouldering responsibility toward the duties entrusted to the government and the Council of Representatives, especially in the exceptional situation the country is currently going through. He expressed his rejection of the statement issued by the Kurdistan Regional Government treating the federal government as a peer through using the term (Baghdad government), which is rejected and unacceptable. He explained that there are clear constitutional designations and terms — a central federal government and a Kurdistan Regional Government, alongside the governorate councils, all operating according to the Constitution — affirming the rejection of any characterization to the contrary. He directed the Kurdistan Regional Government to instruct the Region's media departments to use constitutional and legal terminology when dealing with the central federal government in Baghdad, and that any contrary approach using other terms is rejected, noting that no region or governorate may control oil exports, and affirming the Council's keenness not to touch the salaries of the Kurdistan Region's employees, while considering taking legal measures against the Minister of Natural Resources in the Regional Government should he repeat his refusal to appear before the Council of Representatives.

_ The Speaker welcomed the attendance of the Ministry of Oil officials, inquiring about the challenges facing the oil export process, the alternatives available to the ministry under current circumstances, and its plans to sustain oil exports through the old Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline.

_ Mr. Hayan Abdulghani, Minister of Oil, reviewed in detail the production and export rates, which stood before the war at four million and 200 thousand barrels per day and reached, after OPEC's reduction decision, three million and 400 thousand barrels per day, varying with tanker movement and weather conditions. He referred to the decline of exports after the military operations in the Gulf due to tankers' refusal to carry Iraqi oil, which led to export rates falling far below previous levels. The Minister noted that the current situation allowed providing quantities of crude oil to the refineries with an increase of 500 thousand barrels per day, reaching one million and 200 thousand barrels, which achieved self-sufficiency in oil products to cover daily needs except for gasoline, explaining that the ministry's work continues to build a project through the Japanese loan for producing high-octane gasoline.

_ The Minister stated that crude oil export operations have completely stopped since March 8 after exports halted from the southern outlet due to the lack of tankers, the reluctance of insurance companies and the difficulty of attracting oil shipping companies through the Gulf, with production currently limited to supplying the refineries with oil quantities. He noted that one tanker was subjected to an explosion while carrying Iraqi fuel oil, calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government to export oil from the Kirkuk fields through the pipeline passing through the Region, which the Regional Government built to carry the produced oil to the port of Ceyhan and exports through independently of the federal government's approval. He explained that the second pipeline from Kirkuk to the city of Fishkhabour was subjected to numerous attacks and damage by ISIS gangs exceeding four thousand punctures, which the ministry managed to repair; currently, pipeline testing operations are underway through the efforts of the workers of the North Oil and Oil Projects companies to complete the work in order to use it to export Iraqi oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. He noted the ministry's need for financial support to complete the Basra-Haditha pipeline, 670 km long, along two axes — one toward Syrian territory and another toward the city of Fishkhabour — especially as the project's cost is estimated at more than 4 billion dollars, and referred to reaching an agreement with the Regional Government to export oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan starting tomorrow at 10 a.m., at an export rate ranging between 160 and 200 thousand barrels per day.

_ First Deputy Speaker Adnan Faihan inquired about the reason for the Ministry of Oil's slowness in taking any legal action against the Regional Government for exporting oil without the federal government's approval.

_ The Director General of the marketing company (SOMO) stated the company's readiness to pump oil through the pipeline passing through the Kurdistan Region's areas to Ceyhan, in addition to marketing crude oil by land routes using tankers through Syria to the ports of Baniyas and Tartus, as well as Jordan via the port of Aqaba, from the production of the central oil fields — especially after the difficulty of exporting from the southern outlet. He explained that the focus is on supplying oil to the refineries and then marketing oil products to private-sector companies to the ports, although these steps do not compensate for the previous quantities of Iraqi oil exports.

_ The Ministry Undersecretary for Extraction Affairs affirmed following up on oil smuggling cases in the courts and providing the Council of Representatives with the measures taken by the ministry in pending cases and violations of the laws, noting that he was not allowed to enter the oil fields under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

_ The Speaker demanded a statement of the numbers of producing and non-producing oil fields controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government, clarification of the course of the lawsuits filed by the ministry, and details of the alternative routes for exporting oil, calling on the ministry to exert efforts to overcome the shortcomings of the past period in repairing the pipelines in order to expand export routes.

_ The MPs' interventions focused on demands to complete the oil-carrying pipelines, including the pipeline via Jordan's port of Aqaba, repair the damaged ones, shoulder responsibility in the file of controlling the oil fields, and obligate the Region and the governorates to steer clear of contentious issues and work jointly to overcome the crisis. The interventions also included the members' support for applying the ASYCUDA system as it reflects positively on the country's living conditions, in addition to the importance of maximizing financial resources, stressing the acceleration of oil exports and the preparation of a strategic export plan by the Ministry of Oil, and demanding the formation of a temporary parliamentary committee in accordance with the Constitution to regulate the relationship between the center and the Region in general.

_ The Speaker, on behalf of the Council, thanked the Kurdistani blocs for their patriotic stance regarding oil exports through the Ceyhan outlet, noting communication with the head of the government to complete the application of the ASYCUDA system at the level of all governorates including the Kurdistan Region, affirming at the same time that the Council of Representatives will not allow the salaries of the Region's employees to be touched. He called on the Minister of Oil to hold a meeting with the Region's Minister of Natural Resources to discuss oil derivative prices and the reasons for the higher price of gasoline in the Region compared with the rest of Iraq's governorates, stressing the need to include the domiciliation of the Region's salaries within the 2026 general budget.

At the conclusion of the session, the Council of Representatives decided on several points:

First: Obligating the federal government to find outlets for selling Iraqi crude oil, to avoid the economic effects that could sweep the country and affect — under the security circumstances — the people's livelihood and employees' salaries throughout Iraq.

Second: The readiness of the Iraqi Council of Representatives to vote on any decision that helps the government achieve what is stated in item First.

Third: The federal government must impose its administration over all sources of production, transport and distribution.

Fourth: Obligating the federal government to apply the ASYCUDA system in all of Iraq's governorates, including the governorates of the Kurdistan Region.

Fifth: The forthcoming government program shall include legislating the oil and gas law within a defined period, to be presented before the Council of Representatives to proceed with voting on it.

Sixth: Obligating the federal government to supply government factories and the private sector with fuel oil, to avoid rising stock at the refineries, guarantee the continuity of refinery operations, and avoid the scarcity occurring in oil derivatives.

Seventh: Obligating the federal government to rehabilitate the Iraqi line passing from Kirkuk to west Mosul – Zummar – Fishkhabour toward Ceyhan.

Eighth: Obligating the federal government to disburse the salaries of the Kurdistan Region's employees on par with the employees of Iraq's governorates in general