The contrast between Iraq and Türkiye cuts the export of black gold from Kurdistan
Oil production in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) region continued to decline, extending a nearly two-month shutdown. Export flows to the Turkish port of Ceyhan show little sign of recovery months after Ankara halted Iraqi exports of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 following a International Criminal Court ruling that Turkey should pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in compensation for exports not authorized by the KRG .
The outage is estimated to have cost the KRG more than $1.5 billion: fields that had continued to produce are now offline or operating at reduced production. About 10 days ago, the Iraqi State Petroleum Marketing Organization notified the Turkish state-owned energy company Petroleum Pipeline Corporation of the resumption of export and cargo operations. Last month, Iraq's federal government and the Kurdish regional government signed an agreement to resume exports of Kurdish oil through Turkey. However, Turkey has continued to block the flow of oil, saying it plans to negotiate arbitration before resuming exports. Iraq's economy depends heavily on exports of crude oil, which account for more than 90% of the country's revenue.
The delay in export recovery comes at a time when French oil and gas multinational TotalEnergies ( has finally struck a deal with the Iraqi government to kick-start a long-delayed $27 billion energy project.
The two sides sealed the deal in 2021, which would have seen Total build four oil, gas and renewables projects in southern Iraq over 25 years, with an initial investment of $10 billion. Unfortunately, the gigantic project was shelved due to disputes and squabbles among Iraqi politicians over the terms of the deal.
However, Iraq agreed to a minor 30% stake in the project last month, setting in motion a deal that could attract foreign investment back to the country. After years of instability, Iraq is experiencing a period of relative stability, which increases the chances of a return of foreign investors to the country.
"The Iraqi government confirmed the entire contract, without any changes … so for me it was more than good news," Total chief executive Patrick Pouyanne told Reuters.
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The article The conflict between Iraq and Turkey cuts the export of black gold from Kurdistan comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-contrasto-fra-iraq-e-turchia-taglia-lexport-di-oro-nero-dal-kurdistan/ on Tue, 23 May 2023 17:17:08 +0000.