Iraq seeking agreement with Turkey to resume Kurdish oil exports

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil minister arrived in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Monday for a two-day visit during which he is set to meet with his Turkish counterpart and discuss the possibility of resuming the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port, which has been put on hold for nearly five months.

Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after a Paris arbitration court ruling on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement and allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014.

Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani is set to discuss “boosting bilateral ties, and expanding horizons of cooperation in the field of oil, gas, and energy,” according to a statement from the Iraqi embassy in Ankara.

Abdul Ghani will also meet with Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, in hopes of “reaching an agreement” on resuming the flow of the Kurdistan Region’s oil via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).

Several meetings have been held between Iraqi and Turkish delegations since March, aimed at continuing the exports, but they have not yielded any results.

Erbil and Baghdad signed an agreement to resume the Region’s exports in April, but there is still no oil flowing through the pipeline to Turkey over four months later.

Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have repeatedly declared their willingness to resume the exports, saying the reason the reason the process has not yet restarted is because Turkey wants to inspect and rehabilitate the port tubes that might have been damaged following February’s earthquake.

Kurdish and Iraqi officials are expected to discuss the topic with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who is scheduled to embark on a visit to Baghdad and Erbil on Wednesday.

Article 13 of the Iraqi federal budget obliges the Kurdistan Region to hand over, on a daily basis, at least 400,000 barrels of crude oil to SOMO to be exported through the Ceyhan port, or be used domestically in case it is not exported.