Rosneft takes first shipment of Kurdish oil for refining system
LONDON (Reuters) -- Russian state oil giant Rosneft will buy its first shipment of oil from Iraq's Kurdistan in early April, becoming the first oil major to take Kurdish crude directly into its refining system, trading sources said on Friday.
The shipments aboard tanker Minerva Sophia will sail from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan to Italy's Triest, from where the oil can be taken by pipeline to Rosneft's refineries in Germany.
In February Rosneft signed a deal with Kurdistan to pre-finance crude exports from the semi-autonomous region.
Kurdistan has said the deal marked the first direct sale to a major refiner and opened the door to others to start buying Kurdish oil directly.
Kurdistan says it needs to export oil independently as Baghdad has not paid Erbil its share of the central government's budget, just when the region needs money to fight Islamic State and host Syrian refugees.
Baghdad has said it will sue buyers of Kurdish oil, maintaining that only the central government is legally entitled to export oil. The new Baghdad government has softened its stance, however, as it cooperated with Erbil against Islamic State in Mosul.
Rosneft faces a growing need in Europe for barrels of light crude for its German refinery after a deal with partner BP expired last year. Under that arrangement, BP suppled all light, low sulfur barrels to the Ruhr Oel refinery in Germany.
Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by David Evans, Greg Mahlich
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