ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has said in a meeting with Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar that Baghdad is “making significant efforts” to resume the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports to the international market through Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
In his meeting with Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Bayraktar, Sudani said that the Iraqi government is "making significant efforts to resume oil exports from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, indicating that negotiations are ongoing with foreign oil companies contracted with the Region to resolve some technical issues related to resuming exports,” read a statement by PM Sudani’s office published on Monday.
For his part, "Mr. Bayraktar expressed his country's desire for further cooperation with Iraq in various fields, including refinery and petrochemical projects, and the importance of exporting oil from Basra via the Turkish port of Ceyhan,” the statement added.
Bayraktar was in Baghdad on Sunday, where he also met the Iraqi foreign minister, oil minister, and minister of electricity. In the evening, he visited the Kurdistan Region where he met Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
Prime Minister Barzani and Bayraktar "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.
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