Turkish delegation to meet with Iraqi officials to resume oil exports

(Patria) - A Turkish delegation will meet with Iraqi oil officials in Baghdad on June 19 to discuss the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq, Iraq's Deputy Oil Minister Basim Mohammed told Reuters.

“We have agreed that it is necessary to resume oil exports as soon as possible and we are ready to pump 500,000 barrels per day when the flow restarts,” Basim Mohammed said.

Turkey halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day of exports from the north via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 following an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The ICC ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in compensation for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.

The 80-day halt has cost the KRG over $2 billion, Reuters calculations show. The crude oil pipeline runs from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey's Ceyhan port, and the KRG began exporting oil independently of the Iraqi federal government in 2013, which Baghdad considered illegal.

Attempts to restart the pipeline were delayed by Turkey's presidential elections last month and talks between Iraq's state marketer SOMO and the KRG on an export deal, which has now been reached.