ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Baghdad has received over one million barrels of oil from the Kurdistan Region as exports resumed after more than two years, with the first tanker now loaded at Turkey’s Ceyhan port, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said Saturday.

“Several days ago, the process of pumping oil from the Kurdistan Region toward Ceyhan port via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline resumed after a halt that lasted more than two years,” Ghani told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA).  “The quantities received so far have reached more than one million barrels.”

Ghani said the first tanker at Ceyhan would soon complete loading and proceed to its contracted destination, describing the resumption of Kurdish oil exports as a major achievement for both the federal government and the region, while providing crucial funds for the state budget.

The Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port were halted in March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to start selling oil independently in 2014, awarding the case to Baghdad.

The export via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline resumed last week after a tripartite deal between Erbil, Baghdad, and international oil companies (IOCs), ending a years-long halt that had cost around $30 billion. 

The agreement - which ensures payment guarantees for the IOCs while respecting existing contracts - was hailed as “historic” by both Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.