Iraq's federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have reached a final deal to restart northern oil exports to be announced Tuesday, official sources told Reuters.
A formal request has been sent to Türkiye to restart oil exports through an Iraq-Türkiye pipeline and "in the next few hours pumping will resume," a Baghdad government official said.
Türkiye stopped pumping about 450,000 b/d of Iraqi crude through a pipeline from the Fish-Khabur border area to its Ceyhan port on March 25 after Iraq won an arbitration case, Reuters said.
The halted flows account for about 0.5% of global oil supply, but the stoppage forced oil firms operating in the region to halt output or move production into rapidly-filling storage tanks, and helped to boost oil prices last week to nearly $80/bbl.
Baghdad had said Türkiye violated a joint agreement by allowing the KRG to export oil to Ceyhan without its consent.
Under the deal, which was finalized late on Monday, Iraq's state-owned marketing company 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 said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Baghdad will have access to audit the account. KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani is traveling to Baghadad on Tuesday to finalize an agreement with Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani on the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq and to hold talks to settle a dispute over oil and gas that has dragged on for nearly two decades.
Although one arbitration case has been settled, a second is ongoing.
