ISTANBUL: Turkey said on Monday that an Iraqi oil pipeline that ceased operations in March because of a complex payments dispute involving the Kurdish autonomous region will resume pumping crude this week.
The pipeline closure occurred after an arbitration court directed Ankara to pay approximately $1.5 billion in damages to Baghdad for transporting oil from the Kurdistan region without Iraq’s approval. Disputing the decision, Turkey pursued damages of its own in response.
Before the pipeline shutdown, the autonomous Kurdish region had been exporting around 450,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, speaking at an energy forum in Abu Dhabi, revealed that the dispute has now been resolved, stating, “We will start to operate the pipeline this week.” However, he did not disclose specific details of the agreement.
Turkey had previously indicated that repairs were underway on its segment of the oil link following a significant earthquake in February. In April, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan autonomous region inked a temporary oil accord, marking the conclusion of independent oil exports by the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq.
