Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Sunday met Alparslan Bayraktar, Turkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and discussed the need to remove all obstacles to the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through Ceyhan Port.
“Pleased to meet with Turkiye’s Energy Minister @abayraktar1 to discuss resumption of Kurdistan Region oil exports through the Port of Ceyhan and advancing our energy cooperation,” Prime Minister Barzani posted on X.
Pleased to meet with Türkiye’s Energy Minister @abayraktar1 to discuss resumption of Kurdistan Region oil exports through the Port of Ceyhan and advancing our energy cooperation. pic.twitter.com/wyg9LElPJH
— Masrour Barzani (@masrourbarzani) March 16, 2025
“After (visiting) Baghdad, we held a meeting in Erbil with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Mr. Masrour Barzani,” Minister Bayraktar posted on X.
“During our meeting, we discussed the steps to be taken to develop our oil and electricity trade, as well as potential efforts to enhance cooperation between our public and private companies in the region’s hydrocarbon fields.”
On March 25, 2023, Kurdish crude oil exports through Turkiye were stopped after an international arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, halting 450,000 barrels per day of crude oil exports to international markets.
Bağdat’ın ardından Erbil’de IKBY Başbakanı Sayın Mesrur Barzani ile bir görüşme gerçekleştirdik.
— Alparslan Bayraktar (@aBayraktar1) March 16, 2025
Görüşmemizde petrol ve elektrik ticaretimizi geliştirmek için atılacak adımları ve bölgedeki hidrokarbon sahalarında kamu-özel şirketlerimizle iş birliğinin geliştirilmesi yönünde… pic.twitter.com/ngqXWCf9r7
On February 2, the Iraqi parliament voted for an amendment to the Iraqi federal budget law stipulating the cost of extracting and transporting the Kurdistan Region’s oil, paving the legal way to resume Kurdish oil exports. However, exports have not yet resumed amid disputes between international oil companies in the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad.
The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan, which represents several international oil companies in the Kurdistan, in a statement on March 7 reiterated that they are ready to immediately resume exports as soon “as the conditions communicated repeatedly since November 2023 are met, that treat oil producers in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in a similar manner as oil producers in Federal Iraq.”
