Kurdistan’s oil exports to Türkiye resumed starting tomorrow morning, Saturday.
An oil source at the North Oil Company revealed on Friday that crude oil exports from the Kurdistan Region to Türkiye will resume tomorrow morning, Saturday, after exports were halted in March 2023.
The source told Shafaq News Agency, “Pumping operations through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline will resume on Saturday morning, following technical and administrative understandings between the federal Ministry of Oil, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the Turkish side.”
He added, “The resumption follows a series of intensive negotiations over the past few weeks, involving representatives of the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, as well as operating companies operating in the region.”
The source pointed out that “the previous halt in Kurdistan’s oil exports incurred significant financial losses for Iraq and impacted the regional government’s revenues, at a time when Iraq is experiencing a financial crisis and pressures on the federal budget.”
He stressed that “resuming pumping would boost revenues and contribute to stabilizing domestic markets.”
The Kurdistan Region was pumping about 500,000 barrels per day before exports halted in March 2023, following a court ruling requiring Türkiye to pay $1.5 billion to Baghdad, prompting Ankara to halt use of the crude pipeline.
Last July, the region agreed to hand over its oil to the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) for international sale, in a move to defuse the protracted dispute over oil revenues.
On Thursday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said that the country had incurred losses ranging between $22 and $25 billion due to the halt in oil exports from the Kurdistan Region, and that flows were likely to resume this week.
This figure represents an increase from previous estimates of losses of $19 billion as of last February.
This comes at a time when the region and most of the operating oil companies have signed an agreement to resume exports. However, the agreement still requires official approval from the federal government in Baghdad, according to a statement from the regional government’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
The resumption of pumping through the pipeline linking Kurdistan and Turkey is expected to result in an initial flow of approximately 230,000 barrels per day to global markets, amid concerns of an oil glut due to increased production by the OPEC+ alliance.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which extends from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, is the main artery for transporting crude oil from fields in the Kurdistan Region and the northern provinces to global markets.
Shafaq.com