ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The export of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through Turkey will likely resume by late next week, two well informed sources told The New Region on Wednesday, a day after the US secretary of state stressed the need for a quick resumption in a phone call with the Iraqi prime minister.

“There is no hundred percent certain date for resuming the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, but it is likely that export will resume by the end of next week,” a source from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil told The New Region. “The matter currently depends on Turkey’s technical procedures.”

Another source from the Iraqi state owned oil marketing company (SOMO) told The New Region on background that the Iraqi side has completed all the necessary procedures to resume export. The source further confirmed that the resumption could happen by next Friday at the latest.

The New Region understands that both the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are in close coordination with Ankara to resume export.

Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline, where part of Kirkuk’s oil was also exported through, were halted in March 2023 after Ankara lost a case against Baghdad in a Paris-based arbitration court. 

The case accused Ankara of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing the KRG to start selling oil independent of Baghdad. The halt in export has dealt a major blow to Iraq and the Region's economy, with over $27 billion in lost revenue to date.

The Kurdistan Region eventually announced on Sunday that they reached an agreement to resume the Region’s oil exports to the international market through Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

Iraqi Minister of Oil Hayyan Abdul Ghani on Wednesday said that they had reached an agreement with the Kurdistan Region that includes the Ceyhan pipeline’s return to operation.

Since then, Turkey, Iraq, and the Kurdistan Region have given different responses to when export will resume.

The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on Monday told The New Region that they were yet to decide on the resumption.

Meanwhile, Washington is also insistent that export resumes.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the need for “quickly” reopening the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to resume the Kurdistan Region's oil exports in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.

Rubio and Sudani agreed to "quickly reopen the Iraq-Türkiye Pipeline, and to honor contractual terms for U.S. companies working in Iraq to attract additional investment,” according to a readout of the phone call released by the US State Department.