Turkey and Iraq have failed to reach a breakthrough so far in talks to restart a crucial oil pipeline whose closure has cut off nearly half a million barrels of crude from global markets.
(Bloomberg) — Turkey and Iraq have failed to reach a breakthrough so far in talks to restart a crucial oil pipeline whose closure has cut off nearly half a million barrels of crude from global markets.
Energy ministers from the two countries discussed the importance of resuming flows on the pipeline that carries oil from Iraq’s Kurdish region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan in meetings on Tuesday, according to a statement from Ankara. It followed similar comments from Iraq’s oil ministry Tuesday. Neither side mentioned the payments dispute that’s kept the link closed.
Turkey halted flows on the pipeline in March after an arbitration court ordered it to pay about $1.5 billion in damages to Iraq for transporting oil without Baghdad’s approval. The arbitration between the two countries was the culmination of a long-running dispute between Baghdad and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region over rights to revenue from oil sales.
“We hope to reach a solution to this problem,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said of the halt in exports at a press conference in Baghdad Tuesday. He spoke in a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan after meetings in the Iraqi capital. Fidan didn’t comment on oil exports during the press conference.
Iraq had been exporting about 400,000 to 500,000 barrels a day from fields in the country’s north, including in the Kurdish region, via the now-halted pipeline. Restarting those flows will likely be on the agenda during a proposed visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baghdad and almost certainly requires a political agreement between the two governments to resolve the impasse.
–With assistance from Onur Ant, Selcan Hacaoglu, Zaid Sabah, Kadhim Ajrash and Khalid Al-Ansary.
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