Iraqi Oil Minister discusses oil export resumption through Turkey
The Turkish port of Ceyhan. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, arrived on Monday in the Turkish capital, Ankara, to discuss issues including the resumption of oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Abdul-Ghani will meet the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, to discuss energy issues, on top of which is the resumption of Iraq’s northern oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, said an oil official, according to Reuters.
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.
The 80-day halt of oil exports from the Kurdistan region of Iraq cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) more than $2 billion.
Turkey’s decision to suspend oil exports followed an arbitration decision issued by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) that 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.
Attempts to resume oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan were delayed because of the Turkish presidential elections and discussions between the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) and the KRG over an oil export deal.
The Kurdistan region of Iraq suffers from a lack of liquidity due to the suspension of oil exports through the pipeline.
Iraqi politicians and Kurdish lawmakers said that Iraqi Kurdistan had no other choice but to accept 12.67 percent of the $153 billion budget approved by the Iraqi Parliament.