Gulf News: Turkish energy minister says Iraqi Kurdistan oil exports continue

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Monday 6.5 million barrels of Iraqi Kurdish crude oil had been shipped to world markets via Turkey’s Ceyhan port since exports began and that a seventh tanker was being loaded at the terminal.

Yildiz said crude flow on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had been halted as of Monday due to maintenance work. Flows through the 120,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline began at the end of 2013 but the first cargo was not loaded until May.

The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, whose peshmerga forces are being supported by US air strikes in their battle against the radical Sunni militants of the Islamic State, has been in a long constitutional fight with Baghdad over independent oil sales.

Some shipments have been held up under diplomatic and legal pressure from Baghdad, but an increasing number are now finding buyers.
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