Oil exports from Kurdish region by way of Turkey set to resume: Iraq

Iraq's oil ministry has announced the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

The exports had been halted for nearly two years after the International Chamber of Commerce sided with Iraq in an arbitration case as a long-standing dispute over the independent export of oil by the Kurdish regional government.

The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it had completed the necessary procedures to restart shipments through Turkey's Ceyhan port.

It said that exports will resume in accordance with federal budget regulations and Iraq's OPEC production quota, according to the "agreed-upon framework".

The ministry urged the Kurdish region's authorities to transfer crude oil extracted from the region's oil fields to the State Organisation for Marketing of Oil, facilitating its exports via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.

 

"We call on the regional authorities to deliver the produced quantities in line with signed contracts to ensure smooth operations," it said.

Officials in Baghdad and Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over sharing of oil revenues. In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil through an independent pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Baghdad called the move "smuggling" and "robbery" and filed a case against Turkey in the International Court of Arbitration, arguing that Turkey was violating the provisions of the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline agreement signed in 1973.

The central government considers it illegal for Irbil to export oil without going through the Iraqi national oil company, while Kurdish authorities have said the practice is meant to compensate for budget transfers withheld from the Kurdish region by Baghdad.

Iraq stopped sending oil through the pipeline in March 2023 after the arbitration court ruled in Baghdad's favour.