Iraq’s oil exports through Turkey will not resume before October
Workers walk through the Taq Taq oil field in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Oil exports from northern Iraq through the Turkish port of Ceyhan are not expected to resume before October 2023.
The resumption of oil flows will likely coincide with the visit of the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Baghdad after the trip scheduled for August was postponed, 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 halt of oil exports from the Kurdistan region of Iraq cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) billions of dollars.
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.
Last month, the Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, met in the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, and highlighted the importance of the oil pipeline between Iraq and Turkey.
The two officials emphasized the need to resume crude oil flows after finishing the rehabilitation processes, which the Turkish side described as necessary after the earthquake that struck Turkey last February.