Iraqi PM Blames Oil Companies for Delayed Restart of Oil Flows Via ITP Pipeline

The Turkish and Iraqi government both announced they are ready to restart oil flows via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, but an outstanding agreement on oil production costs with oil companies that are operating in the Kurdistan region is delaying the start up according to Iraq’s Prime Minister Shia Al-Sudani.

• Foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdistan region informed the Iraqi PM Shia Al-Sudani on 24 October that oil production in the region could resume within a month if an agreement on production costs and contracts is reached.
• “The Turkish side announced its readiness to resume the export of oil, just as we did but the oil production companies in the Region have to negotiate with the federal government regarding the contracts and production costs stated in the budget law which are not proportional to the real costs according to the contracts signed between these companies and the Regional Government,” said Sudani during a press briefing on 24 October.
• As of early November, an agreement between the government and the oil companies is still pending.
• Turkey’s energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in October that the pipeline to Ceyhan is prepared for shipments to begin. Iraq’s state marketer SOMO has been informed by BOTAS on 2 October that the pipeline is ready as of 4 October.
• While Turkey’s Energy Minister said on 9 October, operations at the pipeline will resume within a week, flows remain halted. A response by Iraqi officials stated flows are not able to restart soon before commercial and financial issues have been resolved.
• Iraq was forced to halt around 470kbpd of crude exports from the northern region on 25 March through the export pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
• Iraq’s crude oil exports in October stood at 109.55mn barrels, or 3.53mbpd, according to the oil ministry.