ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A proposed pipeline to export Kurdish oil through Iran that has not yet been endorsed by Baghdad will reportedly be on the agenda when Iran’s oil minister visits the country next week to meet with his Iraqi counterpart, according to Iranian media. According to Fars News Agency, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh is expected to arrive in Baghdad on an official visit next week to discuss a range of topics with his counterpart Abdul Jabbar Allibi, notably the future of the oil market, the role of Tehran and Iraq in OPEC, and a proposed pipeline to export Kurdish crude to international buyers through his country. The agency has said that Zanganeh will specifically discuss the question of exporting the Kurdistan Region's oil from Sulaimani province to Iran. The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) envoy to Tehran was unaware of the planned visit. However, he noted that talks on oil export issues have been ongoing. "Probably this visit is within the context of efforts being made by Iran to connect Kirkuk, Kurdistan Region, and all Iraq to Iran. And this way, export them to the world," Nazim Dabagh, the KRG's representative to Iran, told Rudaw. In 2015, the KRG and Tehran agreed to set up a pipeline to export Kurdish oil through Iran, but the proposal has yet to be implemented. The agreement was meant to be signed in May but the KRG was resisting making the final commitment, it was reported in the summer. Dabagh speculated at the time that Erbil was hesitant to sign because they have a 50-year deal with Turkey. In mid-2016, an Iranian official in Kurdistan revealed that Baghdad had not yet endorsed the plan. “Iraq has not given the green light to approve the project,” Ali Panahi, the Iranian deputy consul in Sulaimani told Rudaw in late May, referring to construction of the pipeline. However, Dabagh had earlier told Rudaw that Baghdad had showed willingness to support the project if the oil exports to Iran also included Kirkuk’s oil production, which is currently being exported to Ceyhan in Turkey. “Iraq will have no problem with the project if the oil from Kirkuk is also sent to Iran through that pipeline,” Dabbagh said. The Kurdistan Region has an estimated 45 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, which it administers largely independently of Baghdad. There is also between 10 to 20 billion barrels of oil outside the Kurdistan Region in the so-called disputed territories that are predominantly Kurdish. Since 2014, these territories have been patrolled by the KRG’s Peshmerga forces, including oil wells in Kirkuk and several fields in the Nineveh Plains. The deal with Tehran would give the KRG access to Iran’s Persian Gulf to ship its crude oil to international markets. Iran made the offer to Kurdish officials after a series of disruptions halted the shipment of Kurdish oil to Turkey’s Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean coast.
