Iraq is planning to restore an idle pipeline that would enable oil to be transported straight to Türkiye's southern Ceyhan port while bypassing its Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said on Monday.

Iraq ​will complete inspection of a 100-kilometer (62-mile) section ​of the pipeline "within a week from now" to ⁠enable direct exports from Kirkuk, Abdel-Ghani said in a video statement.

The reopening ​of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been shut ​for more than a decade, would provide an alternative route to a pipeline from the KRG region.

Exports via the 960 ​km pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of ​global supply, were halted in 2014 after repeated attacks by the Daesh terrorist organization.

The Oil Ministry had previously asked the KRG authorities to allow it to use the Kurdistan pipeline as an alternative route for crude flows disrupted ​by the Iran ​conflict. But it ⁠later said the KRG had set arbitrary conditions for the pipeline's use.

Responding ​on Sunday, Iraq's Kurdish authorities rejected the accusation ​that they ⁠were refusing to allow crude exports through the pipeline and said Baghdad had failed to address security and ⁠economic ​challenges facing the region's oil ​sector.

Oil production ​from Iraq's main southern ⁠oilfields, where most of its crude is produced and exported, has plunged 70% to just 1.3 million barrels per day, sources told Reuters on March 8, as the Iran conflict ​effectively shut off the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Iraq's Oil Ministry sent a letter in early March ​to the ⁠KRG in northern Iraq seeking permission to pump at least 100,000 barrels per day of crude from Kirkuk oilfields through the pipeline network to Türkiye's Ceyhan energy hub, according to reports.

Iraq's KRG officials say tensions with Baghdad ⁠have ​risen after the federal government moved to implement a new electronic ​customs system, allowing it to monitor imports and revenues, a step the KRG region sees as undermining its autonomy and control over trade.