Iraqi efforts underway to resolve Kurdish oil exports via Turkey
Ankara, Baghdad and Erbil appear willing to negotiate a new mechanism after an international tribunal dealt a blow to Kurdistan’s drive to sell its oil independently.
Iraqi and Turkish officials are expected to meet soon to discuss a new arrangement for Iraqi oil exports via Turkey after an international tribunal penalized Turkey last week over Kurdish oil exports without Baghdad’s consent.
Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson Asem Jihad told Al-Monitor that an Iraqi delegation would soon travel to Ankara for talks, stressing that neither Turkey nor the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) rejected the arbitration decision — an attitude that he said allows for “a new beginning.”
The dispute stemmed from Iraq’s claim that Turkey breached a bilateral pipeline agreement, signed in 1973 and updated in 2010, by allowing the KRG to export oil independently of Baghdad via Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan since 2014. The Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruled in favor of Iraq last week and ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad some $1.4 billion in damages for 2014-2018. While the ruling put the KRG in a tight spot, the compensation sum came as a silver lining for Turkey, as the penalty had been expected to exceed $20 billion.
Baghdad, for its part, is happy that the ruling confirmed its authority over oil exports despite the lower compensation. “The oil being under our control is more important than anything,” Jihad told Al-Monitor.
