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Russians Buy Kurdistan's Oil Pipelines to Turkey
(Reuters) Dmitry Zhdannikov - Russia's Rosneft oil company has taken over ownership of Kurdistan's oil export pipelines to Turkey from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq in return for $1.8 billion. Rosneft has pledged to invest billions of dollars in Kurdistan, to the anger of the Baghdad government. Control of the pipelines has given Rosneft a central role in ongoing talks between the KRG and Baghdad aimed at resuming full oil exports, which were disrupted by the Iraqi seizure of key oilfields - Kurdistan's main source of income. Moscow's use of Rosneft as a tool of foreign policy has increased significantly over the past two decades under Putin's rule. In Venezuela, Rosneft lent $6 billion to support the government. The company could end up owning large Texan refineries, currently belonging to Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, because the plants are collateral against the debt.