Oil exports via Ceyhan Port to resume in hours: Iraq

By Haydar Karaalp and Esra Tekin

BAGHDAD/ISTANBUL (AA) - Iraq on Friday announced that oil exports through Türkiye's Ceyhan Port would resume in the coming hours by the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) with an initial amount of 185,000 barrels per day.

Speaking to journalists during his visit to the oil fields in the country’s south, Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said that this would be gradually increased until it reached the capacity specified in the federal budget.

The Iraqi Parliament had approved changes to the budget law, setting the cost of extracting and transporting each barrel of oil from the Kurdish Regional Government at $16.

After the decision of the Paris-based International Court of Arbitration on oil exports between Türkiye and Iraq, the flow of oil from Iraq to the Ceyhan Port was halted on March 25, 2023.

It is estimated that the suspension of oil exports to Türkiye has caused Iraq an economic loss of over $23 billion.