SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Turkish energy delegation will meet Iraqi oil officials in Baghdad on June 19, to discuss the resumption of Iraq’s northern oil exports, Iraqi deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, Basim Mohammed, told Reuters on Thursday.
“We have agreed that it’s necessary to resume oil exports as soon as possible and we’re ready to pump 500,000 barrels per day once flow restarts,” said Basim Mohammed.
Turkey halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
The ICC ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.
The 80 days halt has cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over $2 billion, Reuters calculations found.
The crude oil pipeline runs from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and the KRG began exporting crude independently from Iraq’s federal government in 2013, a move Baghdad deemed illegal.
Attempts to restart the pipeline were delayed by Turkey’s presidential elections last month and discussions between Iraq’s state-owned marketer SOMO and the KRG over an export deal, which has now been reached.
