A crude oil swap deal between Iran and Iraq, which was supposed to begin in mid-April, has started, Iran’s Shana agency reported yesterday, as quoted by Reuters. Under the deal, Iraq will send oil from the Kirkuk fields to Iran by truck, to be refined in Iran, and Iran will send the same amount of crude it receives to Iraq’s southern ports for export. The deal is seen by some as a major influence push by Iran in Iraq, after Tehran helped Baghdad quash an emerging independence movement in Kurdistan that culminated in an independence referendum, the results of which Baghdad refused to recognize. After the referendum, Iraq, helped by Iran, sent troops to Kurdistan and retook control of Kirkuk and the oil fields around the northern Iraqi city. In earlier reports on the swap deal, an Iraqi oil official had said the initial flow of Kirkuk oil to […]