Piped Kurdish crude exports via Turkey could resume in the coming days, 2½ years after they were halted, amid mounting expectations of a tripartite agreement between Erbil, Baghdad and international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the region, although top producer DNO remains cautious.
"The agreement has reached its final stages,” Ali Nizar al-Shatari, the head of Iraqi state oil marketer Somo, said on Tuesday, a day after officials were quoted by local media suggesting a deal had in fact been reached.
“We are now awaiting pumping procedures after finalizing all details,” he told the state-run Iraqi News Agency, adding that IOCs needed reassurances regarding the settlement of outstanding arrears payments. “[Somo] has worked to provide such assurances, and the government will announce the date soon after the official signing of this agreement."
Kurdish Volumes
The agreement would see a minimum of 230,000 barrels per day of Kurdish oil being pumped to the Ceyhan terminal, all to be sold by Somo and marketed by a handful of trading firms, including Swiss-based Vitol, according to a well-placed Iraqi source, with another 50,000 b/d of Kurdish production to be refined locally.
