IRAQI OIL MINISTER: KURDISTAN OIL EXPORTS TO RESUME ‘WITHIN A WEEK’
Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani said on Monday, February 17, 2025, that Baghdad and Erbil are putting the final touches to begin “receiving and exporting oil” from the Kurdistan Region “within a week.”
The minister added: “We have agreed with the region’s (authorities) to receive no less than 300,000 barrels (per day) from the region’s fields, to export them through the Turkish Ceyhan port,” according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
The Federal Oil Minister indicated that a delegation will head from Baghdad to Erbil on Tuesday “to negotiate a mechanism for using oil,” stressing that “its export will resume within a week.”
In a speech during a conference attended by Abdul Ghani, he said, “The budget law has been amended to receive and export the Kurdistan Region’s oil through operating the (Iraqi-Turkish) pipeline, to activate this outlet after a halt of nearly a year and a half, and arrangements are now being made by all parties to implement this.”
Kurdistan Region oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan have not resumed since Turkey closed the pipeline in 2023, after an arbitration court ordered Ankara to pay about $1.5 billion in compensation to Baghdad for transporting oil from the Kurdistan Region without the Iraqi government’s approval.
The value of the losses resulting from the halt in the region’s oil exports amounted to $20 billion, according to estimates published by the Kurdistan Region Oil Industry Association (APICOR) last September.
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq was exporting 450,000 barrels of oil daily through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, without the approval of the federal government in Baghdad. Exports stopped in March 2023 after an international arbitration panel ruled in Baghdad’s favor, banning any exports of the region’s oil except through the federal government’s state oil company (SOMO).
The Iraqi parliament approved an amendment to the general budget early this February to settle the dispute between the region and the government in Baghdad over receiving the region’s oil. The amendment stipulates paying “compensation” to the Kurdistan Regional Government for the cost of producing oil and transporting it to the federal government.
