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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region’s oil is moving through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline towards Ceyhan, a "joyful step,” Iraq’s Minister of Oil Hayyan Abdul Ghani told Rudaw on Saturday.
“This is a very joyful step for us. We reached an agreement with our brothers in the [Kurdistan] Region to receive and export oil through Ceyhan Port. For the first time in over two years, the Iraq-Turkey pipeline is now operational on the ground and oil has started flowing into the storage tanks at Ceyhan Port. There is a strong indication of large quantities of oil arriving at the port,” said the minister.
After more than two years of negotiations, the Kurdistan Region, Iraqi federal government and international oil companies operating in the Region earlier this week reached an agreement to export Kurdish oil to Turkey’s Ceyhan Port. The move has been welcomed by Iraqi and Kurdish officials, as well as by the United States.
A total of 285,000 barrels per day of oil is being produced in the Region, according to data collected by Rudaw from sources and statements by the producing companies.
Abdul Ghani later said in a press conference that as per the deal they signed with Erbil and oil companies on Thursday, all oil produced in the Kurdistan Region will be handed over to Baghdad and of this 50,000 will be kept for the Region’s local use.
The minister also noted that Baghdad will take responsibility for the oil once it reaches the Turkish border.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline had been suspended since March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration court found that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement with Baghdad by allowing Erbil to independently export oil beginning in 2014.
The oil minister also told Rudaw that the resumption of the exports will not affect Iraq's compliance with its latest OPEC agreement.
“The oil quantities produced in the Region have already been counted as part of OPEC's quota,” he said.
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