Hurriyet Daily: Arbil seeks Turkey as bridge to EU gas market

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has plans to sell its gas to Europe via Turkey and for a new crude pipeline project, according to Ashti Hawrami, the KRG energy minister.

The KRG, which eased tensions with the central government through an exports deal last week, also aims at supplying 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey gradually, Reuters quoted the minister as saying in Istanbul, where he attended an energy meeting yesterday.

“Later we will consider two options, building a pipeline or an LNG [liquefied natural gas] facility in Turkey’s [city of] Ceyhan to send additional gas to Europe,” he said. “Iraq needs a new pipeline to Turkey to carry the oil produced by both northern Iraq and the central government.”  MORE