Iraq plans direct oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey within a week, minister says

Iraq plans to begin exporting crude oil directly from the northern Kirkuk fields to Turkey within a week, bypassing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul-Ghani said, according to Iraqi state media.

Abdul-Ghani said in a video statement released on Monday that Iraq is working to revive a pipeline route that would allow oil to be pumped from Kirkuk directly to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan without passing through infrastructure controlled by the KRG.

The minister said inspections of a roughly 100-kilometer section of the pipeline are expected to be completed “within a week,” enabling exports from federally controlled oil fields in Kirkuk to resume through the northern route.

If implemented, the plan would allow Baghdad to ship crude to Turkey without relying on the pipeline network operated by the KRG, marking a significant shift in how northern Iraqi oil reaches international markets.

The move comes as Iraq seeks alternative export routes following major disruptions affecting the country’s energy sector, which has been disrupted by the war triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks on US assets in Gulf countries.

The ongoing regional tensions and shipping risks have constrained oil flows through traditional routes in the Persian Gulf, including the Strait of Hormuz.

Officials say restoring northern exports could help stabilize Iraq’s crude supply and ease pressure on southern export terminals, which normally handle the vast majority of the country’s shipments.

Exports through the Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline, which stretches roughly 970 kilometers (600 miles) from Iraq’s northern oil fields to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, were halted in 2014 after repeated attacks by Islamic State militants.

Before the shutdown, the pipeline handled roughly 0.5 percent of global oil supply.

The Iraqi oil ministry had recently asked the KRG to allow the use of Kurdish pipeline infrastructure to move crude from Kirkuk to Turkey. Baghdad said the Kurdish authorities imposed conditions that made the arrangement unworkable.

Kurdish officials denied the accusation, saying Baghdad had failed to address security and economic challenges facing the region’s oil sector.

Iraq’s northern Kirkuk fields currently produce about 350,000 barrels per day, most of which is directed to domestic refineries in northern Iraq.

Restarting exports through Turkey would provide Baghdad with an additional outlet for crude shipments at a time when disruptions in the south have sharply reduced Iraq’s export capacity and government revenues, which depend heavily on oil sales.