Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi offered to supply Turkey with 1 million barrels of oil per day, a figure that reflects the physical capacity of the aging but strategically critical Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline corridor.
The timing here matters. The crude oil pipeline agreement between Turkey and Iraq, originally signed in 1973, is set to expire on July 27, 2026. Turkey has already signaled it will not renew the deal under its current terms.
The pipeline at the center of it all
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, also known as the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline, runs from northern Iraq’s Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Its design capacity has historically been cited at anywhere between 1 million and 1.6 million barrels per day.
Security disruptions, including attacks attributed to ISIS, maintenance backlogs, and long-running contractual disputes between Baghdad and Erbil have repeatedly throttled flows through the line.
