Oil shipments through the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline resumed on Saturday after two-and-a-half years, in a move expected to strengthen Turkiye’s energy supply and add diversity to global markets.
Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Saturday that flows resumed at 7.07 am local time through the pipeline, which had been shut since the 6 February 2023 earthquakes but was declared operational by the Turkish energy company BOTAS in October of that year.
The twin-line pipeline, with a combined capacity of about 1.5 million bpd connects oilfields in Iraq, including those in the Kurdish regional administration (KRG), to the Mediterranean export terminal at the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry said crude produced in the region would be delivered to Iraq’s State Organisation for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), and exported via Ceyhan under an agreement with the KRG and producing companies. Initial shipments are expected to average about 200 000 bpd.
Francesco Sassi, a political scientist at the University of Oslo, said the resumption has little impact on European energy security but signals shifting geopolitics.
“The implications for the wider EU and regional energy markets of the pipeline’s resumption are not particularly evident in terms of energy security, as in these last two and a half years, operators managed to find alternative supplies, especially in the last year of supply glut and lower prices,” Sassi said. “As of today, the resumption tells more about the constitution of an Iraq-Turkiye-KRG energy triangle where the first two partners are preponderant players in regional energy geopolitics.”
He added that Iraq needs to reduce its reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, where transit threats have flared amid regional tensions, while Baghdad and Ankara are pushing to resolve disputes with the KRG.
“The renewed push in both capitals aims at handling energy insecurities while creating a political and economic axis stretching from the Gulf countries to the Mediterranean Sea,” Sassi said.