BAGHDAD (Agencies): A drilling team exploring in an Iraqi oilfield briefly withdrew this week after being warned off by Kurdish security forces, oil industry sources said on Friday. Engineers familiar with the incident said it had no impact on production. But it underlines rivalries between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government over territory and rights to Iraq’s huge oil reserves, which lie mostly in the Kurdish north or the Shiite south of the country. An Iraqi government oil official, who declined to be identified, said members of the Kurdish Peshmerga security force had taken over the Khurmala oil field on Thursday and sent away employees working there.

The field, which produces about 35,000 barrels per day of oil, lies 65 kms (40 miles) northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, close to the border of Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry quickly took the employees back to the field and they resumed working, the official said. By Friday, Kurdish forces had left the area, he said.
“We consider this an irresponsible act against the Iraqi oil facilities,” the official said.
Two engineers working for the Iraq Drilling Co in Kirkuk described a more limited skirmish, saying a crew was exploring in part of the Khurmala field when a Kurdish force arrived.
The Kurdish force told the crew the land was part of the Kurdish regional government’s territory and they had no right to explore there, the engineers, who also declined to be named, said.
The force ordered the crew to leave the area, and it did so, they said.
The drilling company immediately contacted the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad and told them about the incident.

The engineers said the incident had had no effect on production from the field.
The head of Kirkuk provincial council, Rizgar Ali, said he had no knowledge of the incident.
Disputes between the Kurdish region and Baghdad have delayed a federal oil law in Iraq for over a year.
Kirkuk is also a focus of rivalry between ethnic groups, largely because of its oil wealth.
Kurds, a minority in Iraq as a whole, see the city of Kirkuk as their ancient capital and have led a push for a referendum to establish control. Arabs encouraged to move to Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein want it to stay under Baghdad’s control.
The prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, said this week however that Kurds were willing to share power with Arabs in Kirkuk and that a solution did not necessarily have to come in the form of a referendum.

Also:
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s oil minister says improved security has allowed the country to boost its oil production — which only now has attained at pre-war levels again.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani says the increase has enabled Iraq to earn nearly $28.5 billion in revenues in the first five months of this year.
Production last month hit the pre-war level of 2.5 million barrels a day. And al-Shahristani told parliament that in the coming five years, Iraq should be able to produce between 4 and 4.5 million barrels a day.
Security in the oil producing areas of southern Iraq has improved since the government launched a crackdown on Shiite militias in late March.
Shahrestani, speaking before the parliament, said Iraq produced 1.9 million bpd in 2005 and the output was currently at 2.5 million bpd.
High oil prices generated record revenues for the Iraqi government, said the minister, who noted that $28.5 billion were income in five months in 2008 compared to $32 billion in the entire 2007.
The Iraqi oil ministry plans to increase crude oil production to 4.5 million bpd in five years, and to some six million bpd in 10 years.

Iraqi oil ministry has improved drilling equipment thus more crude oil was produced, he said.
Shahrestani said some of the Iranian border guards were banning Iraqi oil engineers from working in some of the common oil fields in the border Emara area under pretext of lack of border signs.
He said Iraq has reduce imports of car fuel to around 14 million liters per year against 21 million liters in 2005.
Shahrestani also pointed to the lessening of sabotage actions against the oil facilities nationwide thus bringing down losses from around $6 billion in 2005 and 2006 to less than $1 billion this year.
The Iraqi ministry of oil is in the process of building an oil refinery in Al-Nasiriya with a production capacity of 300,000 bpd, in addition to three other refineries in Al-Emara, Kirkuk and Karbala with 150,000 bpd output.