Iraq and Turkey still at odds over the restart of northern oil exports

The meeting between Iraq's oil minister and his Turkish counterpart in Ankara did not result in an immediate agreement to resume northern oil exports from Iraq. However, both parties have agreed to engage in further discussions in the future, as reported by two sources knowledgeable about the meeting.

Turkey ceased the flow of oil on March 25 in response to an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which mandated that Ankara pay $1.5 billion in damages to Baghdad. This ruling was related to unauthorized oil exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018, primarily consisting of oil sourced from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

An official statement from the oil ministry conveyed that the meeting's outcomes focused on the need for Turkey and Iraq to complete essential pipeline maintenance before resuming oil exports. Iraq's oil minister, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, had journeyed to the Turkish capital to address various issues, including the resumption of oil exports through the Ceyhan oil terminal, as confirmed by a source within the minister's office earlier.

A high-ranking Iraqi oil ministry official, who is closely associated with northern oil export operations, disclosed that the Turkish energy ministry had informed Iraq's state-owned marketer SOMO last month of its requirement for additional time to assess the technical feasibility of restarting oil flows through the pipeline. "Turkish energy ministry informed SOMO last month that more time is needed to check the pipeline and crude storage tanks in Ceyhan for any damages resulting from the earthquake-hit Turkey," said the Iraqi official.

Iraqi energy officials also emphasized that the visit of their oil minister was aimed at establishing common ground with Turkey to agree on a specific date for the resumption of oil exports. "It's not an easy job to reach an agreement soon and we have a lot of thorny issues. Turkey has demands and conditions that require further talks to allow oil flow restart," said an oil ministry official with knowledge of the meeting.