The Iraqi federal government will pay 650 billion Iraqi dinars ($547 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government next week as part of an agreement over disputed oil revenues, Kurdistan oil minister Ashti Hawrami told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.

"We are expecting to receive any time next week some 650 billion Iraqi dinars as a first payment," Mr. Hawrami told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Istanbul where he is attending an energy conference.

The KRG will receive an additional IQD350 billion either by the end of this year or the beginning of 2013, depending on the central government's budgetary procedures, Mr. Hawrami said.

Earlier this month the KPG and federal government in Baghdad resolved issues relating to oil payments to foreign companies producing crude oil in the region and Kurdish control of oil exports from Kurdistan.

The agreement comes after KRG suspended crude oil exports of nearly 100,000 barrels a day in April, citing a $1.5 billion backlog owed by Baghdad . It restarted them on Aug. 7, in what it said was a "goodwill gesture," but said flows would halt if no payments were forthcoming by Aug. 31. The KPG later extended its deadline to Sept. 15.

"We are currently exporting 140,000 barrels a day and that will continue until the end of this month, when we will raise exports to 200,000 barrels a day from beginning of October until the end of this year," Mr. Hawrami said.

The KRG hopes to set an average export target of 250,000 barrels a day in the 2013 federal budget, Mr. Hawrami said.

"In 2015, we are hoping to reach an average of 1 million barrels a day," he added.

This month's agreement resolves only part of a broader impasse between Baghdad and Kurdistan about the control of oil resources and territory.

The central government said earlier this year that it was preparing to pay another $560 million this year to foreign oil companies in Kurdistan , but it was waiting for the KRG to send documents to support the costs.
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