Iraq to resume oil exports to Türkiye next week: Oil Minister
A handout picture released by Iraq's Prime Minister's Media Office on January 2, 2025, shows a partial view of the oil refinery of Baiji north of Baghdad, during the inauguration ceremony of the fourth and fifth units. (Photo by IRAQI PRIME MINISTER'S PRESS OFFICE / AFP)
Oil exports to Türkiye will resume within the next week, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdulgani announced Tuesday.
This marks the resolution of a long-standing dispute over oil exports between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq.
Kemal Mohammed, deputy minister of Natural Resources of the KRG, revealed that a delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil will meet with KRG officials in Erbil on Wednesday. He also indicated that oil exports could begin as soon as March. Abdulgani confirmed that the resumption of exports is indeed planned for the coming week.
He had previously mentioned on Feb. 2 that the KRG would deliver 300,000 barrels of oil per day to the central government, which will then be exported via the Ceyhan Port by the Iraq State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).
In addition, the Iraqi Parliament had approved changes to the budget law, which set the cost of extracting and transporting each barrel of oil from the KRG at $16.
Resumption of oil exports to Türkiye
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein also mentioned in a statement that the central government is working to resolve technical issues with the KRG and aims to restart the crude oil pipeline. The nearly two-year suspension of oil exports has resulted in an estimated revenue loss of $19 billion for Iraq.
To facilitate the resumption of oil exports, a delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil is expected to visit Erbil in early March for further discussions.
Dispute’s background
The issue began when Türkiye signed an agreement with the KRG to export oil, prompting Iraq’s central government to file a lawsuit, claiming that the agreement violated previous contracts. The International Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of Iraq, declaring that the KRG’s sales to Türkiye without Baghdad’s approval was illegal. Following this decision, oil shipments were halted in March 2023.
Before the halt, under the agreement, 450,000 barrels of oil were being transported daily from the KRG region to Türkiye through the Ceyhan Port. In September 2024, Myles B. Caggins, the spokesperson for the KRG Oil Industry Association (APIKUR), noted that no new agreements had been made to restart oil exports through Türkiye, adding that Iraq had suffered approximately $19 billion in losses due to the interruption.
