As major regional powers Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran mull the Iraqi Kurds’ independence referendum, Russia finds itself in the position of having become the major investor in Iraqi Kurdistan. Russian spending in the area’s oil and gas industry has reached at least $4 billion.
Stronger energy ties between Moscow and Erbil (the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG) became apparent long before the Sept. 25 referendum. In February, Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft announced it would finance in advance a two-year deal, beginning this year, to buy Kurdish crude for the company’s growing global refining system.
