Türkiye aims to expedite the revival and make the pipeline that runs from Iraq's Kurdistan region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan operational as soon as possible, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Monday.
The remarks come after Bayraktar's trip to Irbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) last Thursday, where he held talks with Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani. The talks followed the two ministers’ meeting in Ankara earlier in the week.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also discussed energy, in addition to economic and security relations, both with the president and prime minister of the KRG, after holding talks with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad last week.
Türkiye halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
The ICC ordered Türkiye to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion over what it said were unauthorized exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.
Ankara, on the other hand, said the ICC had recognized most of Türkiye’s demands. Its Energy Ministry said the chamber ordered Iraq to compensate Türkiye for several violations concerning the case.
Given the supply constraints in the international oil market, markets are closely monitoring the developments around the pipeline's reactivation.
Representatives from Iraq's Oil Ministry have indicated that additional negotiations with Ankara might be necessary before the pipeline can be fully operational once again.
Meanwhile, a Bloomberg News report on Friday suggested Türkiye was seeking a compromise over competing demands from Iraq and the KRG over revenue-sharing from oil exports.
The results of the Bayraktar-Abdel-Ghani meeting were to allow Türkiye and Iraq to finalize pipeline maintenance before resuming oil flow, an Oil Ministry statement said last week.
Bayraktar on Monday said maintenance operations were almost complete.
“We are carrying out these activities in utmost coordination,” he told the public broadcaster TRT Haber. “Our goal is to put the Iraq-Türkiye oil pipeline into operation as soon as possible.”
"We entered a rigorous inspection process for the pipeline (after the earthquake and flood disasters). We are approaching its completion. We are planning to finalize it. Maintenance tasks in critical areas have been concluded," said Bayraktar.
"Just as Türkiye has fulfilled its role in maintaining a balanced and stable global oil market (in the past), it will continue to do so in the future."
