MEOG: Iraq says ready to resume Turkey exports

The Iraqi prime minister this week reiterated his government’s position that it is ready to resume exporting oil through a pipeline that crosses Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea.

Speaking to state media, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said that Ankara has also said it is prepared to resume operation of the route, but his comments noted that contractual issues with the international firms operating in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq are yet to be ironed out.

“If this part is not resolved, these companies will delay the production. If this case is resolved and an agreement is reached, the companies have informed us that they could resume the production and then the export,” Al-Sudani said.

Turkey suspended the flow of Iraqi (both Federal and Kurdish) crude oil exports – around 450,000-475,000 barrels per day (bpd) – through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline on March 25 following an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). This ruling was a result of unauthorised oil exports by the Kurdistan Region between 2014 and 2018, with the court ruling that Ankara owed Baghdad more than $1.9bn.

Turkey has sought to reduce the damages owed to Iraq as per the ICC arbitration ruling. This has been a point of contention, and Iraqi sources have previously mentioned that Turkey wants Iraq to drop a separate arbitration case covering exports from 2018 onward.