PUK President Visits Baghdad to Discuss Salaries & Oil Agreement Implementation

PUK President's Media

PUK President Bafel Jalal Talabani & Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani.

Bafel Jalal Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is scheduled to visit Baghdad on Saturday afternoon, 11 October 2025, to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani to discuss public sector salaries and the implementation of the oil agreement between Erbil and Baghdad.

According to reports, the main purpose of President Bafel’s visit — who is widely recognised as the key architect of the current oil and financial understanding between the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi federal government — is to review progress on the agreement’s implementation and to remove existing obstacles in order to strengthen cooperation between the two sides.

President Bafel is also expected to call for the immediate disbursement of salaries to the Kurdistan Region, alongside the reorganisation of the salary payment process across Iraq, to ensure that employees in both the Region and the rest of the country receive their entitlements simultaneously.

On 27 September 2025, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq–Türkiye pipeline, following an agreement between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Iraqi Government, and the foreign oil companies operating in the Region. 

Under the deal, the Kurdistan Region will produce 280,000 barrels of oil daily. Of this, 50,000 barrels are allocated for domestic consumption, while 230,000 barrels are delivered to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) for export via the Turkish port of Ceyhan. However, the Region’s current production capacity is limited to 180,000–190,000 barrels daily due to drone attacks on its oil fields last summer.



PUKMEDIA