Kurdistan ready to export Kirkuk oil to Turkey with Baghdad in charge of marketing: Barzani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Wednesday revealed that he made an offer to Baghdad to export Kirkuk’s oil to Turkey through Kurdistan’s pipeline with an Iraqi oil company taking the lead on marketing, but so far, there has been no response from the Iraqi government.

Oil exports from Kirkuk transported by pipeline to Turkey were halted after Iraqi forces, and Shia militias took over the area late last year, weeks after the Kurdistan Region’s controversial independence referendum which included the disputed province.

Baghdad planned to export the province’s crude oil to Iran via trucks, but the process has been delayed multiple times due to many reasons, including threats by Islamic State militants along the road to the border.

“Even after the incidents of 2017, I told the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, that the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] is ready to export the current oil in Kirkuk to Turkey through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline, which is about 250,000 to 300,000 oil barrels,” Barzani told reporters during a press briefing in Erbil.

The Prime Minister’s comments come at a time when Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi stated on Monday that Baghdad is still in talks with the KRG and Turkey to resume the export of Kirkuk’s crude abroad through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Barzani noted that Baghdad is not ready to use the pipeline and has not given the KRG a response on the matter.

“If they agreed from the day I made the offer, believe me, Baghdad would have received an additional revenue of some $3.5 billion by now,” he added.

The KRG had offered that the Federal Government of Iraq exports Kirkuk’s oil through Kurdistan’s pipeline to the Ceyhan port with Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) taking charge of marketing and receiving the revenue, the Kurdish Prime Minister explained.

“So far, Baghdad has given us no response.”

Barzani questioned the Iraqi government’s slow response and effort in Kirkuk’s oil export through the Region’s pipeline. “The pipeline is Kurdistan’s, but it belongs to Iraq too.”

Oil has been one of many deep-rooted disputes between the KRG and the federal government over the past decades.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany