Iraq 's government Monday said crude-oil exports from the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan to neighboring Turkey are "illegal" and threatened to take "appropriate action," in a continuation of recent of tensions between the two.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, has begun exporting an unspecified amount crude oil by truck to Turkey without the permission of the central government.

"This is an illegal and unconstitutional business that we will take the right decision against," Faisal Abdullah, spokesman for Iraq 's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein al-Shahristani, told Dow Jones Newswires.

"The Oil Ministry [in Baghdad ] solely reserves the right to export crude oil, gas or oil products to other countries," Mr. Abdullah said.

Baghdad and Erbil , the capital of Iraq 's Kurdistan , are at loggerheads over a number of issues including who should control oil and gas produced in the region. The central government argues that it should control all resources in the country, while the Kurds say that they are eligible to run their own resources in accordance with the country's new constitution.

The Kurds said that its crude would be refined in Turkey and send back for local consumption, and that it was forced into this because the central government hasn't been sending enough oil products to meet their needs.

The KRG in April suspended crude oil exports of nearly 100,000 barrels a day through a Baghdad-controlled export pipeline, protesting that the central government was delaying payment of around $1.5 billion that the region needs to pay to contracting companies.

This came after the central government reached an agreement that the Kurdish authorities would resume oil exports from February after a suspension of more than year, and agreed to pay exploration costs and expenses to foreign firms in the KRG.

Tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdish region have risen since October, when U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) announced a deal with the KRG to explore for oil in Kurdistan. Baghdad warned the U.S. oil giant could risk its agreements with the central government.
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