Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline ceased on March 23, 2023, following a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court in favor of Baghdad against Ankara. The court determined that Ankara had violated a 1973 agreement by permitting Erbil to commence independent oil exports in 2014.
“The US has been engaged at the most senior levels on this issue and we have urged all parties to reach an agreement to resume the flow of oil through this pipeline. We believe that restarting oil exports through the pipeline will be mutually beneficial to all parties and because of that reason, that's why we'll continue to pursue it,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Despite several meetings between Erbil, Baghdad and Ankara, the oil exports have yet to be resumed.
The resumption of oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline will resume once outstanding issues between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government on the mechanism of the exports are resumed, Ali Abdulsattar, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, said on Monday.
The Iraqi oil ministry on Monday blamed the international oil companies (IOCs) working in the Kurdistan Region for not reopening the pipeline, stressing that halting the process was not the decision of Baghdad and that the federal government is “the most affected” by the halt in exports.
The ministry was responding to a statement by an IOC association in the Kurdistan Region, and labeled the statement a “blatant interference” in Iraqi affairs.
The KRG has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis which deteriorated when the flow of oil to the international markets was suspended. The Kurdish government now relies on local income and its controversial share from the federal budget. The KRG paid nine salaries of public employees last year and has paid only one salary this year.
The closure prevents the export of 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Kurdistan Region, costing Baghdad and Erbil billions of dollars in losses.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday received Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Washington. The visit comes weeks before Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s meeting with the US President Joe Biden at the White House.
Miller also told Rudaw during Tuesday’s press briefing that Blinken and Hussein touched on Erbil-Baghdad issues.
“So they did discuss that [Erbil-Baghdad] issue. The secretary made clear that stability between Baghdad and Erbil would bring economic benefits to all Iraqis. It would be good for the region, and that we encourage the two partners to work together,” said Miller.
