https://arab.news/4vvbs
- Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO will export the crude from Kurdish oil fields through a pipeline to Turkiye
- The Kurdistan Regional Government said on X that oil exports will resume within 48 hours
BAGHDAD: Iraq will restart the export of oil from its Kurdish region to Turkiye after an interruption of more than two years, following what Prime Minister Shia Al-Sudani called a historic agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government.
Under the agreement, Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO will export the crude from Kurdish oil fields through a pipeline to Turkiye. The Kurdistan Regional Government said on X that oil exports will resume within 48 hours after the tripartite agreement between Iraq’s oil ministry, the KRG ministry of natural resources and producing companies.
Flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had been shut since March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Turkiye to pay Iraq $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorized exports by the Kurdish regional authorities.
The Iraqi oil ministry said in a statement it had reached an agreement to deliver all crude from Kurdistan fields, except volumes for local use, to SOMO for export via the pipeline to Ceyhan. The ministry did not specify when flows would restart. Eight oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, representing over 90 percent of production, reached agreements in principle on Wednesday with Iraq’s federal and regional governments to resume exports.
Before the exports were suspended, Iraq was shipping about 230,000 barrels per day through the pipeline.
Turkiye is appealing the order to compensate Iraq, which led to the pipeline being shut, but says it is ready to restart the pipeline.