An international ruling in favor of Iraq against Turkey regarding the export of Kurdistan’s oil

An Iraqi oil official announced that his country had stopped crude oil exports from the Kurdistan region and the Kirkuk fields in the north of the country yesterday, the day after winning a long-running arbitration case against Turkey. A senior Iraqi oil official stated that Turkey had informed Iraq that it would respect the ruling in the arbitration case.

In a case dating back to 2014, Baghdad said Turkey had violated a joint agreement by allowing the KRG to export oil through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Baghdad considers KRG exports illegal. A senior Iraqi oil official said, “The International Commercial Arbitration Court officially informed Iraq of its final decision on Thursday, and the decision was in favor of Iraq.”

Turkish shipping officials told Iraqi employees at Turkey’s Ceyhan oil export center that no ship would be allowed to load cargoes of Kurdish crude without the approval of the Iraqi government, according to a document seen by Reuters. A separate document showed that Turkey then stopped pumping Iraqi crude through the pipeline to Ceyhan.

Another official at the Ministry of Oil announced that a delegation from the ministry will visit Turkey soon to meet with Turkish energy officials “to agree on new mechanisms for exporting Iraqi crude oil in a manner consistent with the arbitration decision.”

In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government confirmed that the ruling “will not impede the relationship” between Erbil and Baghdad. She added that a delegation from the ministry would visit Baghdad for dialogue and to resolve relevant issues regarding the court’s decision.
Iraq wins an international arbitration case by stopping oil exports from Kurdistan