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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s oil ministry on Monday responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s claims regarding the suspension of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, saying that Erbil and Baghdad are on the same page regarding the resumption of exports.
Erdogan on Wednesday told Rudaw during a press conference that the suspension of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports was because of problems between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and that Ankara had no issues with receiving the oil.
“No, we do not have any political issue [with KRG], we, and the KRG, share the same view regarding the exportation of Kurdistan Region’s oil, which is in the public interest,” Basim Mohammed Khudair, the Iraqi oil ministry’s undersecretary for extraction affairs, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz.
Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after a Paris arbitration court on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad, saying Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement when it allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Turkey to pay a penalty of $1.4 billion in damages to Baghdad for allowing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to independently export its oil between 2014 and 2018.
On Wednesday Erdogan said that Ankara is waiting for Baghdad and Erbil to resolve their internal matters and then Turkey will act, adding that they endorse the opening of the pipelines which he described as a “win-win situation”.
Iraqi officials say that Turkey does not want to restart the oil flow through the pipeline until the Iraqi government forgives the $1.4 billion dollars penalty imposed by the ICC.
There have been several meetings between Turkish, Iraqi, and Kurdish officials since the court ruling, but exports are still halted. Around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through Ankara, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk oil daily through the same pipeline.
Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in early April to resume the exports but Turkey’s presidential elections in May delayed the process. Iraqi and Kurdish officials have cited Turkish officials saying that the delay is due to damage caused to the pipeline during February’s devastating earthquakes.
The KRG is heavily reliant on oil revenues and an inability to sell its crude has severely impacted its economy. Erbil has lost billions of dollars since the exports were halted.
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