Iraq's northern oil exports to Türkiye have not resumed yet, sources told Reuters Thursday, leaving several fields shut down in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Türkiye stopped pumping about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iraqi crude from the pipeline last month after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Baghdad and Ankara to pay each other compensation on a long-standing arbitration case.
The case relates to Iraq's claim that Türkiye violated a joint agreement by allowing the KRG to export oil through the pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan without its consent.
Ankara said the ICC had recognized most of Türkiye's demands. Its Energy Ministry said the chamber ordered Iraq to compensate Türkiye for several violations concerning the case.
Iraq's federal government and the KRG signed a temporary agreement Tuesday to restart northern oil exports through Türkiye, which several officials hoped would see exports resume that day.
Türkiye wants that case resolved before reopening the pipeline, sources previously told Reuters.
Meanwhile, according to two Turkish officials familiar with the situation who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity, Türkiye wants to negotiate with Iraq a settlement that it’s been ordered to pay before an oil pipeline that exports 400,000 barrels a day is reopened.
Turkish authorities did not provide further details on whether they are planning to decrease the compensation or establish a way to pay it. The KRG stated they could resume the supplies this week, but talks about compensation could cause delays.
The prolonged pipeline outage has forced oil firms in the region to halt or reduce production at several fields, as storage fills up.
The Sarta field, which produced an average of 4,170 bpd last year, is offline, a spokesperson for operator Genel Energy said Thursday.
The firm said on March 29 that output from the field could flow until the end of the week, while tanks can take in production from its Taq Taq field, which produced 4,490 bpd last year, until April 21.
"The recent disruptions to oil exports from the Kurdistan region have hurt the country. This agreement brings much-needed revenue," KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement following the signing of Tuesday's temporary deal.
In a statement, Barzani said while the deal is temporary, it is a "crucial step toward ending the long-standing dispute," between Irbil and Baghdad and "creates a positive and safe atmosphere to finally approve the national oil and gas law."
Pipeline operators have yet to receive any instruction to restart flows, a source familiar with the exports told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Iraq is still waiting for a response from Türkiye, a separate source said.
Baghdad and Irbil have been at loggerheads over oil revenues for years.
Iraq, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) second-largest producer, filed for arbitration against Türkiye in 2014 after the KRG sidelined the state-owned oil marketing company, SOMO, and began exporting crude oil through the neighboring country.
Iraq claimed that all oil exports have to go through SOMO, as per a 1973 agreement with Türkiye.
A second arbitration case relating to the 1973 pipeline agreement for the period from 2018 onward remains open.
Under the new deal, SOMO will have the authority to market and export KRG oil, and the revenues will be deposited in an account at the Iraqi Central Bank under the control of the KRG, two Iraqi government officials noted.
