Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban met with Turkish counterpart Fatih Donmez in Baghdad on Wednesday, where he informed the Turkish minister “about the willingness of the [Iraqi] ministry of oil - with support from the Iraqi government - to construct a new pipeline to transport Iraqi crude oil from Kirkuk to Iraqi border through the same old track,” he said during a joint press conference with Donmez after the meeting.
He was referring to an old Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline between the two countries which came under frequent attacks by armed groups after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is no longer used by Iraq because of the damage it sustained.
The pipeline will be able to receive oil from Iraq’s southern oilfields, Ghadhban said, providing the product with an alternative export route.
“These alternatives are very important for Iraq’s oil exportation sustainability. Recent events in the Persian Gulf prove that this strategy is especially crucial.”
Ghadhban’s comments come amid tensions in the Persian Gulf between Iran and western countries after several mysterious attacks on vessels in recent months, the downing of a US surveillance drone in June, and the seizure of a British flagged tanker.
Amid the tensions, Iran has threatened the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world’s oil exports travel.
The US has sought to establish an international coalition to guard Persian Gulf waters and ensure the safe passage of commercial tankers. The UK and Bahrain have heeded the call, agreeing to join the coalition.
With 90 percent of Iraq’s government revenue coming from oil exports, the country is heavily dependent on safe navigation of the Persian Gulf for its subsistence.
In response to Iraq’s precarious position, discussions for a new pipeline through Turkey were catalyzed by Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi‘s visit to the country in May.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Donmez expressed Turkey’s readiness to export Iraqi oil through Turkey, indicating that oil sector ties with Iraq could be strengthened in the future.
“Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline has the capacity and potential to transport oil produced in northern Iraq to markets in the safest and fastest way. It can [also] transport it to markets, typically the Mediterranean, through Ceyhan [port],” Donmez is reported by Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) to have said.
“We discussed and evaluated a number of new projects with the [Iraqi oil] minister,” he added.
Iraq exports about five million barrels of crude oil per day to world markets, including more than a hundred thousand barrels per day from Kirkuk to Turkey through the Kurdistan Region’s pipelines.
Kurdistan Region used to export more than 300,000 bpd from the province of Kirkuk to Turkey before October 16, 2017, when the Iraqi army and pro-Iran militia groups drove Kurdish Peshmerga forces out of the province following a Kurdish referendum for independence from Iraq.
With exports from Kirkuk to Turkey suspended, oil was instead sent to Iran via tankers. The venture proved costly, unsafe, and was ultimately ordered to a halt by the US because of Washington's imposition of oil industry sanctions on Iran.
However, Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in late 2018 to export the Kirkuk oil via the Kurdistan Region’s pipelines to Turkey. The KRG charges Iraq for use of the pipeline.
