Export of 230,000 bpd from Kurdistan

Pipeline shut down in 2023

Revenue sharing deal reached

Iraq has finalised an agreement with Turkey to resume oil exports via a pipeline that was shut by Ankara two years ago, an Iraqi official has reported.

Oil flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline were halted by Turkey in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Turkey to pay Iraq damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.

“The state organization for marketing oil (Somo) has reached an agreement with the Turkish side to resume export of Kurdistan’s crude oil,” Iraqi parliament’s deputy speaker Shakhwan Abdullah said on Sunday, quoted by the local press.

He said Iraq’s federal government has also finalised an agreement with the KRG regarding oil and non-oil revenue sharing.

Nabil Al-Marsoumi, an economics professor at Basra University in South Iraq, said the agreement includes the export of around 230,000 barrels per day of crude from Kurdistan.

“The resumption of exports will not necessarily lead to an increase in Iraq’s overall crude exports because it is committed to a fixed Opec production agreement,” Al-Marsoumi said.

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He said that once exports through the 970km pipeline start from Kurdistan, Iraq will have to lower its oil exports from southern terminals in order to comply with Opec quotas.

Iraq, Opec’s second largest oil producer, has been locked in a dispute with Kurdistan over crude exports despite the latter’s support for an initial agreement.

The announcement comes ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq in November.