Turkey, Iraq sign one-year oil pipeline deal

Turkey and Iraq signed a one-year agreement on maintaining use of the crude oil pipeline between the ‌two countries, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Saturday.

The agreement extended a decades-long bilateral arrangement that expired on Monday which allows the operation of Baghdad's only functioning export ⁠pipeline, the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP).

"While our efforts continue toward a new long-term agreement for this pipeline... we have implemented this transit arrangement covering a daily capacity of 750,000 barrels," the minister said on X.

Bayraktar said he had a "productive" meeting in Ankara with Iraq's oil minister and his delegation and ‌they ⁠signed the one-year deal between Turkish state energy company BOTAS and Iraq's state oil companies SOMO and NOC.

The extension allows time for talks on a more comprehensive ⁠agreement. Turkey wants the pipeline, with a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), to be fully utilised ⁠and possibly extended to southern Iraqi oil fields.

The pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan ⁠currently carries around 170,000 bpd, according to Turkish data.

Reuters