On Tuesday, a high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) arrived in Baghdad to hold a series of meetings with relevant ministries of the Iraqi federal government.

The delegation consists of the ministers of finance and economy and natural resources, the chief of staff of the Council of Ministers, the secretary of the Council of Ministers, the head of the Department of Coordination and Follow-up, and the deputy minister of planning.

The delegation is scheduled to first meet with the Federal Ministry of Finance, followed by meetings with the ministries of planning and oil.

In a statement received by Kurdistan Chronicle, the KRG’s Media and Information Department said that the main purpose of the visit is to ensure the KRG’s direct participation in preparing the draft federal general budget law for fiscal year 2027 and to secure the Kurdistan Region’s constitutional and financial entitlements and share in the draft law.

During the meetings, the KRG delegation will present the region’s views and demands regarding allocations for salaries and the financial entitlements of public-sector employees, job grades and staffing structures, allocations for investment and development projects in the provinces, allocations for operational expenditures, as well as the oil dossier.

The meetings aim to reach a common understanding and agreement with the federal government and to secure the Kurdistan Region’s rights and entitlements in the 2027 federal budget.

Baghdad and Erbil have repeatedly had disputes over the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget, particularly over the payment of public-sector salaries, the region’s share of federal revenues, and oil exports. 

In July last year, the KRG and Baghdad reached an agreement for the KRG to deliver 230,000 barrels of oil per day and 120 billion Iraqi dinars in non-oil revenues to resume oil exports that had been halted since 2023.

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However, given the economic difficulties and the impact of the recent Iran war, the KRG has not been able to send 120 billion Iraqi dinars per month. Moreover, the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports have drastically decreased after oil companies stopped production twice in February and July due to the threat of drone attacks.

However, recently oil production has recovered amid security guarantees by Baghdad and the decrease in drone and missile attacks since a ceasefire in April. Furthermore, in August Baghdad and Türkiye reached an one-year agreement to continue oil exports through the Iraq-Türkiye Pipeline, after the previous 1973 pipeline agreement between the two countries expired on July 27, 2026.

On August 29, Kamal Mohammed Salih, the KRG Minister of Natural Resources, told reporters that oil companies in the Kurdistan Region had reached a production level of approximately 220,000–250,000 barrels of oil per day after resuming production earlier that month.