Kurdistan Region oil shipments exceed 8 million barrels, defies Baghdad

Erbil (IraqiNews.com) On Thursday, officials and oil industry sources said that the Kurdistan Region of Iraq exported more than eight million barrels of oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan since May 9, 2014. The region used new methods for the sale of oil in defiance of Baghdad.

A Turkish official said in a statement quoted by “Reuters”, “An eleventh tanker with Kurdish oil sailed from the port today. The government of Kurdistan currently uses a number of smaller carriers in addition to the original tankers with a capacity of one million barrels to overcome the efforts of Baghdad to block sales.”

The Turkish official said “the latest tanker carries 250 thousand barrels has just left the port of Ceyhan. The total quantities that have been shipped from the port exceeded eight million barrels.”

A senior official of the Kurdistan government said last week that “the government may turn out to use smaller tankers, instead of the tankers that were sent earlier, with a capacity of one million barrels.”