.jpg?20250221')
ANKARA - Türkiye has yet to receive confirmation from Iraq on the resumption of oil flows through the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Reuters on Wednesday.
Iraq's oil minister said on Monday that oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region will resume next week, resolving a near two-year dispute that has disrupted crude flows as ties between Baghdad and Erbil improve.
A resumption is expected to ease economic pressure in the Kurdistan region, where the halt has led to salary delays for public sector workers and cuts to essential services.
Asked by Reuters in parliament when the Iraqi oil flow would start and whether there was any information from Iraq on the subject, Türkiye's Bayraktar replied: "Nothing yet."
The oil flows were halted by Türkiye in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised pipeline exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which Reuters has reported covered 2014 to 2018. A second ongoing arbitration case covers 2018 onwards, a source familiar with the matter has said.
Türkiye has said the pipeline has been ready since late 2023 to resume flows.
The Iraqi central government's Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters on Monday that a ministry delegation would visit the Kurdish region to negotiate a mechanism for receiving oil from the region and exporting it, adding the "export process will begin within a week."
Abdel-Ghani said Baghdad would receive 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the region.
Iraq, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' second-largest producer behind de facto leader Saudi Arabia, is currently pumping about 4 million bpd, OPEC data shows, in line with the production target agreed with the broader OPEC+ alliance.
It remains unclear how Iraq will boost its northern exports and stay compliant with OPEC+ cuts and whether it would, for example, trim exports from Basrah in southern Iraq.
Erbil-based Rudaw TV had earlier this week cited Kurdistan's natural resources minister, Kamal Mohammed, as saying oil exports could resume before March because all legal procedures have been completed.
The Iraqi parliament approved a budget amendment this month to subsidise production costs for international oil companies operating in Kurdistan, aiming to unblock northern oil exports.
&uuid=(email))