WASHINGTON DC - The United States on Wednesday urged the Iraqi government to reach an agreement with the international oil companies (IOCs) to resume oil exports from the Kurdistan Region after nearly two years of suspension. Washington further pressed on Baghdad to honor existing contracts with the US companies.
“We are urging the Iraqi government to reach an agreement... with the international oil companies to resume oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline as soon as possible, and to honor the existing contracts with US companies,” Tammy Bruce, US State Department spokesperson, told Rudaw during a press briefing.
The reopening of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline “ensures that Iraqi oil can reach global - especially European - markets,” Bruce explained, adding that “Iraq benefits from the stability of resilient supply chains as we all do.”
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023, following a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court in favor of Baghdad. The court determined that Turkey had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently starting in 2014.
Negotiations between Iraqi and Kurdish officials, as well as with the OICs, have yet to yield a definitive resolution. IOCs are seeking guarantees of payment and contractual security, while Baghdad insists on federal oversight. Erbil, meanwhile, aims for a solution that protects its economic interests.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee met with a delegation from Baghdad’s oil ministry to discuss the recent amendment to the Iraqi budget law, which stipulates that the federal government must pay $16 per barrel of oil in transport and production fees to the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Kurdistan Region.
Haybat al-Halbousi, an Iraqi lawmaker and head of the parliamentary committee in reference, told reporters after the meeting that “oil exports through the Kurdistan Region will resume next week, per what the oil ministry committee said.”
On Saturday, Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem al-Awadi told Rudaw that the main obstacles to the resumption of the Kurdish oil exports have been cleared, and that exports "may restart this month."
Myles Caggins, spokesperson for the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan’s (APIKUR), an umbrella group of eight international oil firms, told Rudaw after Bruce's comment that they have yet to reach an agreement to restart the Kurdistan Region's oil exports.
"More meetings are required. APIKUR appreciates the priority that Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani and Senior U.S. Government leaders have placed on restoring oil exports through the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline," he said.
