BAGHDAD: A Turkish energy delegation will meet Iraqi oil officials in Baghdad on June 19, to discuss the resumption of Iraq’s northern oil exports, Iraqi deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, Basim Mohammed, told Reuters on Thursday.
“We have agreed that it’s necessary to resume oil exports as soon as possible and we’re ready to pump 500,000 barrels per day once flow restarts,” said Basim Mohammed.
Turkiye halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
The ICC ordered Turkiye to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.
The 80 days halt has cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over $2 billion, Reuters calculations found. The crude oil pipeline runs from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and the KRG began exporting crude independently from Iraq’s federal government in 2013, a move Baghdad deemed illegal.
Attempts to restart the pipeline were delayed by Turkiye’s presidential elections last month and discussions between Iraq’s state-owned marketer SOMO and the KRG over an export deal, which has now been reached.
Turkish, Iraqi officials to discuss resumption of Iraq’s northern oil exports
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Turkish, Iraqi officials to discuss resumption of Iraq’s northern oil exports
- Turkiye halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Election of new Iraqi president delayed by Kurds
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament postponed the election of a president on Tuesday to allow Kurdish rivals time to agree on a candidate.
Parliamentary Speaker Haibat Al-Halbussi received requests from Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to postpone the vote to allow both parties more time to reach a deal.
By convention, a Shi’ite holds the powerful post of prime minister, the parliamentary Speaker is a Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.
Under a tacit agreement between the two main Kurdish parties, a PUK member holds the Iraqi presidency, while the president and regional premier of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region is selected from the KDP. But this time the KDP has named Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as its own candidate for the presidency.
Once elected, the president will then have 15 days to appoint a prime minister, widely expected to be Nouri Al-Maliki, who held the post from 2006 to 2014. The shrewd 75-year-old politician is Iraq’s only two-term premier since the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shi’ite parties that holds a parliamentary majority, has already endorsed Maliki.
