Turkey must respond definitively before Iraq can begin shipments

According to Iraq's energy minister, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, the country is still awaiting a firm response from Turkey before resuming its northern oil shipments, which go from the mostly autonomous Kurdistan region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

According to Abdel-Ghani, Turkey informed Baghdad that a technical team was examining if the pipeline had been harmed by the severe earthquake in February.

Following an arbitration decision by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Turkey stopped Iraq's 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in penalties for illegal exports made by the Kurdistan Regional Government between 2014 and 2018.

This month, Iraq requested Turkey to resume pipeline flows and loading activities at Ceyhan on May 13. An Iraqi oil official told Reuters on Monday that the Turkish pipeline operator BOTAS has not yet received orders from Turkish authorities to begin supplies.

"The anticipated time period for resumed shipments is weeks, not days. Currently, this issue is more political than technical, according to the source.

Officials from the Iraqi administration earlier told Reuters that the delay was due to elections. On May 14, Turkey conducted presidential elections. However, neither of the two leading contenders received more than 50% of the vote, necessitating a run-off election on May 28.

The Kurdistan region of Iraq has seen a decrease in oil output as a result of the 60-day pipeline interruption, which Reuters believes cost the KRG more than $1.5 billion.