Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have ironed out technical issues essential to resuming northern oil exports from the Turkish port of Ceyhan to international markets, four sources told Reuters Monday.
Türkiye halted Iraq’s 450,000 bpd of northern exports on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Türkiye to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports by the KRG between 2014 and 2018.
Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, signed a temporary agreement on April 4 to restart northern oil exports but continued to negotiate on technical issues before engaging with Türkiye, two sources said.
These included marketing, pricing and destination.
Under the planned deal, state-owned marketer SOMO will sign contracts with traders under the power of attorney. At the same time, four sources said that KRG crude would be restricted from heading to Asia and priced against Kirkuk’s official selling prices (OSP)s.
Iraq’s oil ministry and the KRG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
International oil companies have been invited to Erbil for a meeting with KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday morning, two separate sources told Reuters.
One source said discussions would focus on preparations for resuming exports, terms and conditions for pricing crude oil sales through SOMO, the proposed mechanism for paying international oil firms’ debts, and their share of future oil export sales.
However, the timeline for resuming Iraq’s northern oil exports remains unclear. As a result, one of the sources said the ball remains in Türkiye’s court.
Sources previously told Reuters that Türkiye is seeking in-person negotiations with Baghdad relating to the $1.5 billion it was ordered to pay Iraq in damages in the arbitration case.
Türkiye also wants to resolve a second arbitration case regarding unauthorized flows since 2018 before it restarts them, the sources said.
