Shafaq News – Baghdad/Ankara

Turkiye’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called for a new energy agreement with Iraq that includes a mechanism to ensure the full use of the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Bayraktar stressed that the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, has “never been used at full capacity even during operational periods.”

The pipeline has been offline since 2023 after an arbitration ruling ordered Ankara to pay $1.5B to Baghdad for unauthorized oil exports between 2014 and 2018, a decision Turkiye is appealing.

Bayraktar noted that Turkiye’s decades-old energy accord with Iraq expires in 2026 and proposed extending it to cover gas, electricity, and petrochemicals in addition to oil. He also suggested the pipeline could eventually be extended to southern Iraq, linking it to the country’s Development Road project, which aims to connect Basra to Turkiye and onward to Europe.