Ali Nizar Faiq, the General Director of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), announced on Friday that the company has completed all necessary preparations to resume oil exports from the Kurdistan Region.

“We have finalized contracts with oil companies and are now fully prepared to export oil from the Kurdistan Region,” Faiq stated. “We are awaiting the quantities that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will deliver.”

The announcement marks a significant step toward restoring oil exports from the semi-autonomous region, which were halted in 2023 following an international arbitration ruling that required Kurdish oil sales to go through Baghdad.

In a separate statement, SOMO strongly rejected allegations of oil mixing or smuggling through Iraqi ports, calling such claims “baseless.”

“The propaganda about oil smuggling to neighboring countries is shameful and lacks credible evidence,” SOMO said. “No such activity is occurring in Iraqi ports or regional waters.”

The organization further emphasized that no international body has provided proof of smuggling, dismissing the accusations as “unfounded and lacking any scientific basis.”