Crude oil flows from Iraq's northern region to Turkey resumed for the first time in two and a half years.
Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced Saturday that oil flow through the Iraq–Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline resumed at 7.07 am local time.
Bayraktar confirmed the reopening in a post on X, saying: “As of 07:07 this morning, oil flow has resumed through the Iraq–Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline, which had been temporarily shut down due to the earthquakes of Feb. 6, 2023, and was made operationally ready by BOTAS on Oct. 4, 2023.”
Iraq’s official news agency INA reported that exports also resumed from oil fields in the Kurdish Regional Administration in northern Iraq. Ali Nizar, director of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that exports from the Kurdish region via the Iraq–Türkiye pipeline had started.
He said SOMO will receive 190,000 barrels per day for export and another 50,000 barrels for domestic consumption.
According to reports, exports resumed at the Fishkhabur oil field with the participation of a delegation from the Kurdish Regional Administration, the Iraqi central government, and oil companies.