Since September’s independence referendum and October’s dramatic Kirkuk re-capture by Iraqi troops, the drama over Kurdish oil continues, with new developments occurring early this week. On Sunday, the government of the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq indicated it was prepared to hand over oil facilities, airports, border points and state revenue to Baghdad, provided the central Iraqi government agreed to hand over the Kurdish share of the national budget. The long-running dispute over the country’s oil revenues is at the center of tensions between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region. Since 2014, Iraq hasn’t shared of its oil revenues with Kurdistan, and the autonomous region signed its own oil deals and funded itself independently. For a time, the Kurds were able to entice major oil companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total SA with lucrative offers, persuading them to ignore the threats of legal action from the […]