Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline since a Paris arbitration court ruling on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement and allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014, to the ire of Iraq.
“The meeting in Baghdad will be attended by representatives of Turkey’s Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Region, SOMO [Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization], and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil,” Nahro Rawanduzi, deputy head of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, told Rudaw.
Around 400,000 barrels of day were being exported by Erbil through Ankara, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk oil daily through the same pipeline.
Rawanduzi said the main obstacle preventing oil from flowing again “is another complaint filed by Iraq against the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through the Ceyhan pipeline from 2019 until the suspension of the exports” and is seeking $2 billion in compensation.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Turkey to pay a penalty of $1.5 billion in damages to Baghdad for allowing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to independently export its oil between 2014 and 2018.
Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in early April to resume the exports but Turkey’s presidential elections last month delayed the resumption of the exports.
The KRG is heavily reliant on oil revenues and an inability to sell its crude has severely impacted its economy. According to Reuters estimates, Erbil has lost over $2 billion since the exports were halted.
