ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region and Turkey’s Energy Minister discussed the need for all obstacles removed in front of the resumption of the Region’s oil exports.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar arrived in Erbil on Sunday, where he met Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

“In the meeting both sides discussed developing the relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey, especially in the field of energy,” read a statement from the prime minister’s office.

“Both sides were in agreement on the need for all obstacles removed in front of the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through the Ceyhan port,” the statement added.

Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline, where part of Kirkuk’s oil was also exported, 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.

After the nearly two-year halt, Baghdad and Erbil eventually announced late February that they reached an agreement to resume the Region’s oil exports to the international market through Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

The halt in exports has dealt a major blow to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region's economy, with over $27 billion in lost revenue to date.

Bayraktar was in Baghdad earlier in the day, where he met the Iraqi foreign minister, oil minister, and minister of electricity.

The meeting with Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein witnessed discussions around “issues related to electricity, natural gas, and oil, as well as ways to develop existing cooperation in the energy sector to reflect the close relations between Iraq and Turkey,” according to a statement by Iraq’s foreign ministry.