Ceyhan oil pipeline maintenance almost complete
Ceyhan petroleum operations field. Photo: BOTAS
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, revealed on Monday that maintenance work on the pipeline that extends from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is about to be completed.
The Turkish minister confirmed that Turkey aims to put the pipeline into operation as soon as possible.
While Iraq is trying to reach an agreement with the Turkish side in order to resume exports, the losses in the Kurdistan region of Iraq since oil exports stopped about five months ago have reached $5 billion.
Last week, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, discussed with the Turkish Energy Minister bilateral relations in the oil and energy sectors during a meeting in Ankara.
Iraq’s official news agency reported that the two ministers highlighted the importance of resuming oil flows after completing the pipeline rehabilitation operations.
Turkey stopped Iraq’s exports of 450,000 barrels per day through the oil pipeline that extends from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on March 25.
Turkey’s decision to suspend oil exports followed an arbitration decision issued by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris.
The decision obliged Turkey to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in compensation for damages caused by the KRG’s export of oil without permission from the federal government in Baghdad between 2014 and 2018.
The KRG began exporting crude oil independently in 2013, a step Baghdad considered illegal.