ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US State Department on Monday reiterated its support for resuming the export of the Kurdistan Region’s oil which has been put on pause for over two months, adding that they have been in contact with Baghdad, Erbil, and Ankara on this matter.
The Kurdistan Region's oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port are yet to resume after being put on hold in late March following a ruling from a Paris-based arbitration court saying that Ankara had breached its 1973 pipeline agreement with Baghdad.
“We continue to support the resumed operations of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, and we have engaged on this issue with urgency with Baghdad, with Erbil, and Ankara,” Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department, told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a presser on Monday.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that growth momentum in Iraq's economy has slowed down in recent months, largely affected by the oil production cuts and the halt in exporting Kurdistan Region's oil.
"We hope to receive a delegation from the Turkish side soon to resolve this issue," Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told Rudaw earlier this week, expressing optimism about the resumption of the Region's oil exports, saying that the stoppage "will not continue" amid ongoing negotiations with Ankara.
