Turkey has become aware that the northern Iraq oil stockpiled in Turkey cannot be sold on the world market without Baghdad's approval and has begun developing appropriate new policies.
Since 2011, when relations with the Maliki government seriously deteriorated, Ankara has been striving for economic integration with the northern Iraq Kurdish administration. Most of the schools, hospitals, hotels, mass housing, roads, bridges and infrastructure in that region have been built by Turkish companies. Most of their food supplies come from Turkey. But that rosy situation began to change when oil and natural gas got into the picture.