Iraq’s northern oil exports to resume on Saturday, ministry says

Turkish authorities informed Iraq that exports through Ceyhan will be restarted this weekend

The Kar Refinery in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. AFP

Iraqi crude oil exports will be resumed from the northern pipeline that runs through Turkey on Saturday, Iraq' Oil Ministry announced late on Thursday.

About 450,000 barrels of oil was trapped in Iraq’s Kurdish region in late March after the International Chamber of Commerce ruled on a long-standing complaint from Baghdad against solo export by the region.

On April 4, a deal was struck between Baghdad and Erbil to allow the federal government to market the oil produced from the Kurdish region. Baghdad and Ankara had been working to iron out technical hurdles.

On Thursday, Turkish authorities told Iraq that exports through Turkish port of Ceyhan will be restarted on Saturday, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani said in the statement.

Mr Abdel Ghani said the federal State Oil Marketing Organisation finalised all the deals with the international companies to buy the oil.

The statement did not give details on how many barrels will be shipped.

The April deal stipulates that 400,000 barrels of oil a day will be exported from Kurdistan and handled by Somo. For the first time, Kurdistan will have a representative at Somo.

A committee comprising two representatives from the Ministry of Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government's Natural Resources Ministry will oversee the marketing of Kurdish oil until this year's budget is approved.

Oil revenue will be deposited in a central bank account, or another bank, and will be overseen by Baghdad, but will be under the control of the KRG. Baghdad will have access to audit the account.

The dispute over who has the right to develop oil and gas resources in the Kurdish region was one of the thorny issues that marked post-Saddam Hussein Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.

The Kurds had said Iraq's 2005 constitution gave them the right to sign agreements with oil companies and states without consulting Baghdad.

But Baghdad maintained the region had no right to sign deals and said exports had to go through state-run pipelines and be marketed by Somo.