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US Urges Iraq to Reach Agreements to Allow Resumption of Kurdish Oil Exports
3/20/2025
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24)
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce explained that the U.S. was “urging the Iraqi Government” to reach an understanding with the international oil companies to allow the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region.
According to Iraqi authorities, those exports are to restart shortly. although the international oil companies say that more discussion is needed to reach an agreement that will allow for the export of Kurdish oil.
As one knowledgeable source told Kurdistan 24, that developments have come as far as this has a lot to do with the pressure exerted by the Trump administration on Baghdad, including the pro-Iranian elements there.
As a second source affirmed to Kurdistan 24, the Trump administration is very friendly toward the Kurdistan Region.
That was apparent, for example, in a post last week by President Donald Trump on X, highlighting the role of the Peshmerga in the recent assassination of a key ISIS figure.
"Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” Trump wrote last Friday. “His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government.”
Insert X post:
By contrast, when Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Sh’a al-Sudani announced the killing of that ISIS leader, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i (aka Abu Khadijah), he praised the Iraqi army, but failed to mention the key role played by the Peshmerga.
Background to Oil Export Dispute
Kurdish oil exports stopped in March 2023, when the International Court of Commerce (ICC) ruled in favor of Iraq in a dispute that was first brought to the court by Nouri al-Maliki eleven years before—in 2012—when Maliki, a strongly sectarian Shi’ite figure, was Iraq’s prime minister.
In fact, Maliki’s governance was judged to be so partisan that the Obama administration concluded that he had been a significant factor behind the rise of ISIS. Thus, it demanded his resignation as a pre-condition for returning U.S. troops to Iraq in order to fight the terrorist group, which had emerged suddenly out of the Syrian civil war.
It took nine years for the ICC to issue its ruling that the export of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) contravened the original 1973 agreement concerning exports through that pipeline. And now it has taken another two years to reach the point where, it seems, Kurdish oil exports will soon resume.
Of course, these problems could have been resolved much more quickly, but there was little desire to do so in Baghdad—until the Trump administration focused on the issue.
State Department Position
Bruce was asked about the U.S. role in promoting the resumption of Kurdish oil exports.
“We’re urging the Iraqi Government to reach an agreement .. . with the international oil companies to resume oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline as soon as possible and to honor the existing contracts with U.S.companies,” she replied.
“Reopening the ITP ensures Iraqi oil can reach global, especially European markets,” she continued. “Iraq benefits from the stability of resilient supply chains, as do we all.”
The Trump administration has been focused on cutting off Iranian oil exports, as part of its maximum pressure campaign. Bringing additional sources of oil online helps to reduce the resulting pressure on international oil prices, so it, too, has a strong interest in the resumption of Kurdish oil exports.
