By all classifications, Turkey can be regarded as a transcontinental country. It is situated mostly in Western Asia but has a small part within the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Bordering onto them is Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia Iraq, Iran and Syria. Apart from its large automotive sector, other key industries are also electronics, banking, mining, construction as well as oil refining. There are quite a number of natural resources also to be found within Turkey.
A new proposal for an existing situation
Turkey has submitted a draft proposal to Iraq to renew and expand an energy agreement between the two countries to include cooperation in oil, gas, petrochemicals and electricity, an Iraqi oil ministry official told the state news agency late on Monday. The statement came after Ankara announced the end of a decades-old agreement covering the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline or otherwise referred to as the Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline. It extends over 600-miles and runs from Kirkuk in Iraq until Ceyhan within Turkey. It forms Iraq’s largest crude oil export line.
“The Ministry of Oil is in the process of reviewing the draft agreement sent by the Turkish side and negotiating with them regarding it to reach a formula that serves the interests of Iraq and Turkey”,
the Iraqi oil ministry official added.
The 1.6 million barrel-per-day Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been offline since 2023 after an arbitration court ruled Ankara should pay $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorized Iraqi exports between 2014 and 2018. Turkey is appealing the ruling. Turkey still wants to revive the oil pipeline with Iraq, a senior Turkish official told Reuters earlier on Monday.
Iraq and Turkey – the past and the future
In a decision published in its Official Gazette on Monday, Turkey said the existing deal dating back to the 1970s – the Turkey-Iraq Crude Oil Pipeline Agreement – and all subsequent protocols or memorandums would be halted from July 27, 2026. Iraq and Turkey have been working to resume oil flows from the pipeline.
Ankara said in late 2023 that the pipeline was ready to receive Iraq’s oil but talks between Baghdad, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government and independent oil producers were not able to reach an agreement on terms. The Turkish official said the pipeline had the potential to become a “highly active and strategic pipeline for the region”.
Breaking ground on an agreement
The person added that Turkey had invested heavily in its maintenance and noted its importance for regional projects like the Development Road – a planned trade route involving Turkey and Iraq. “A new and vibrant phase for the Iraq-Turkey pipeline will benefit both countries and the region as a whole,” the Turkish official said, without giving details of what Ankara wanted the new agreement to include.
Turkey sees the Development Road initiative – a high-speed road and rail link, running from Iraq’s port city of Basrah on the Gulf to the Turkish border and later to Europe – as an opportunity to extend the pipeline further south. Baghdad allocated initial funding for the project in 2023. The aim behind Iraq’s Development Road infrastructure project is mainly to connect Asia with Europe, essentially making Iraq a transit center. Thus, shortening overall travel time between Asia and Europe.
This pipeline agreement will definitely reshape the energy dynamics of the entire region. As this will now connect the oil resources of Iraq to the Mediterranean markets, there lies significant economic and geopolitical advantage for both of these countries. The pipeline deal, however, encompasses much more than just oil. It covers a much broader energy cooperation framework. This framework focusses on various aspects of the energy needs of both countries.
GCN.com/REUTERS.