"The agreement has reached its final stages,” Ali Nizar al-Shatari, the head of Iraqi state oil marketer Somo, said on Tuesday, a day after officials were quoted by local media suggesting a deal had in fact been reached. A Mediterranean oil trader, formerly a buyer of Kurdish crude, said he hadn’t yet seen any offers. DNO, the biggest operator in Iraqi Kurdistan in terms of production, echoed those doubts on Tuesday. “What’s unacceptable is that it’s possible for Iran to export its oil through Iraq, but it’s not possible for US investors to export oil through Iraq. And that’s the language that’s used in Congress, to keep [Iraq] focused on this issue,” he said.