Iraq has requested that the capacity of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline be nearly four times its current flows under a proposed one-year interim agreement with Türkiye, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Monday.
The decades-old pact that governed exports through the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline is due to expire on July 27. Bayraktar said last week that the sides are set to sign a 12-month agreement in the coming days to keep the pipeline open.
Türkiye had submitted a draft of a new long-term agreement to Baghdad, but negotiations had been delayed amid Iraq's elections and the formation of a new government.
Bayraktar said the process had made it unlikely that a comprehensive deal could be concluded before the current pact expires.
"As an interim solution, we proposed signing a one-year oil transportation agreement ... so that flows do not stop on July 27," he told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
He said the Iraqi side requested capacity of 750,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared with current volumes that stand at around 180,000 to 200,000 barrels per day.
"We said, 'That's fine, we will allocate 750,000 barrels per day to you.' Within that year, we want to sign a new and more comprehensive Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline agreement," he said.
Bayraktar said he discussed broader energy cooperation with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaydi during a visit to Baghdad last week, including the extension of the pipeline to Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra and increasing its capacity to 2.5 million barrels per day.
He said Türkiye proposed opening the route to additional regional crude supplies.
"We said that if Kuwait wants to ship its oil through this pipeline, it should be able to do so. If others in the Gulf want to use it, they can as well," Bayraktar said.
"We also discussed building a natural gas pipeline alongside it so Qatari gas or other regional gas sources could be transported," he added.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been at the center of a long-running legal dispute between Türkiye and Iraq. A Paris-based arbitration court ruled for Ankara to pay $1.5 billion over what it said were unauthorized exports by Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.
Türkiye, on the other hand, said the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) had recognized most of Ankara's demands.
Bayraktar said enforcement proceedings continue in Washington, where reciprocal claims and accrued interest will be calculated before determining whether either side owes compensation.
"There will be calculations, including interest, because our claims also date back many years. Once that is completed, the 2014-2018 period will be closed," he said, adding that arbitration covering the period after 2018 remains ongoing.
He said the arbitration cases would form part of broader negotiations with Iraq and that several issues related to the proposed one-year agreement have yet to be resolved, while stressing Türkiye is ready to proceed once the remaining issues are settled.
Türkiye halted oil flows through the pipeline following the devastating February 2023 earthquakes, citing damage to the infrastructure. Operations resumed after repair work in September 2025.
However, exports were temporarily disrupted again during the Iran conflict before restarting on March 18.
