ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that the suspension of Kurdistan Region’s oil exports is because of problems between Baghdad and Erbil, and Turkey takes no issue with the exports.
“We do not have an issue in receiving oil from Iraq. This issue is sourced from tensions between the federal government of Iraq and northern Iraq. My relevant friends are holding meetings in this regard,” Erdogan told Rudaw’s Zinar Shino during a press conference in Vilnius.
He said that Ankara is waiting for Baghdad and Erbil to resolve their internal matters, and then Turkey will act.
“We endorse the opening of pipelines because it is a win-win deal. Let them win and let us win too,” he added.
Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after a Paris arbitration court on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad, saying Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement when it allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
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.
There have been several meetings between Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdish officials since the court ruling, but exports are still halted. Around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through Ankara, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk oil daily through the same pipeline.
Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in early April to resume the exports but Turkey’s presidential elections in May delayed the process. Iraqi and Kurdish officials have cited Turkish officials saying that the delay is due to damage caused to the pipeline during February’s devastating earthquakes.
The KRG is heavily reliant on oil revenues and an inability to sell its crude has severely impacted its economy. Erbil has lost billions of dollars since the exports were halted.
Iraq passed its highly-contentious federal budget in June after months of discussions. Article 14 was among the most disputed in the bill, detailing the management of the Kurdistan Region’s oil income.
The budget law obliges the KRG to sell 400,000 barrels of crude oil through Iraq’s national oil marketing body and if the suspension continues, Iraq will take Kurdish oil for its internal use.
Updated at 8:28 pm
