Ankara pitches Development Road as $80bn energy corridor

Türkiye plans to turn the proposed Development Road from Iraq’s southern ports to Europe into a multi-fuel energy corridor worth $80bn annually, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency following last week’s visit to Ankara by Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, Bayraktar said the route would carry oil, gas and electricity alongside freight.

“Türkiye is determined to build the Development Road not only as a transport corridor but also as a strategic ‘energy route’ supported by oil, natural gas, and electricity transmission lines along the route,” he told the agency.

Channelling 40-50% of Iraqi and Kuwaiti crude output through the corridor could lift its throughput to 2.5mn barrels per day (bpd), Bayraktar said, generating an estimated $65-70bn a year in economic value from oil flows alone.

The minister also floated the prospect of Qatari gas moving overland via Iraq into Türkiye, with volumes split between the domestic market and onward sales to Europe. Doha currently ships the bulk of its output as LNG through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint the proposed pipeline would bypass.

Bayraktar separately pointed to a reinforced role for the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, suggesting its southern extension to Basra and a capacity upgrade would offer Gulf producers a credible alternative to Hormuz-dependent routes. Energy security considerations, he argued, made the case more pressing.

The minister also signalled a broader push by Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) into Iraq’s upstream, beyond the 15% stake the state company recently took in BP’s redevelopment of the Kirkuk fields. TPAO is targeting additional Iraqi licence areas, he said, without naming specific blocks.

“Working closely with the new Iraqi government, we will continue strongly implementing concrete projects,” Bayraktar said. “We aim to reach the target of supplying 1 million barrels of crude oil, as expressed by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zeydi, and to turn Ceyhan into a global energy hub by increasing trade volume.”

The Development Road, a roughly $20bn road-and-rail scheme linking the Grand Faw Port on the Gulf to the Turkish border, is backed by Baghdad, Ankara, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Attaching hydrocarbon infrastructure to the alignment would deepen the commercial logic for all four governments, though financing, security along the Iraqi stretch and alignment with existing export contracts remain unresolved.

No timeline for the energy components was disclosed.