The Turkish Minister of Energy, Alp Arslan Bayraktar, announced that the oil pipeline between Iraq and Turkey will be technically ready for operation soon and will be qualified to transport oil from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export purposes after completing the oil line checks.
Bayrakdar said in a press statement published here today that one of the maintenance companies has completed the field survey of the line and is in the process of preparing the final report on its technical aspects.
Turkey stopped pumping oil through the pipeline on March 25, after a ruling in an arbitration case issued by the International Chamber of Commerce ruled Ankara to pay compensation to Baghdad for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government between 2014 and 2018.
Turkish media reported that Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alp Arslan Bayraktar agreed during his visit to Baghdad last August with Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani on the necessity of resuming the flow of Kurdistan oil again to Turkey after the completion of pipeline rehabilitation operations.
Iraq had filed a lawsuit against Turkey for obtaining crude oil from the Kurdistan region without its approval, which the International Chamber of Commerce based on in its ruling to stop exports, and ruled to compensate Baghdad about 1.47 billion dollars, which led to the interruption of supplies amounting to about 400 thousand barrels per day of crude oil from the fields of the Kurdistan region.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency