Ankara and Baghdad have signed a one-year agreement to maintain crude oil flow through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, which runs from Iraq to Turkiye. The deal, finalized on Saturday between Turkish state firm BOTAS and Iraq’s state oil companies SOMO and NOC, comes shortly after the previous decades-old arrangement expired the prior Monday.

The renewed agreement guarantees a crude flow of 750,000 barrels per day through the pipeline, according to officials. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated on X that the agreement followed a “productive meeting” in Ankara with Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair. He added, “While our efforts continue toward a new long-term agreement for this pipeline … we have implemented this transit arrangement covering a daily capacity of 750,000 barrels.”

The Iraq-Turkiye pipeline has a maximum capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day, though actual flows have been significantly lower in recent years. Turkish data indicates the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline currently transports roughly 170,000 barrels per day, mainly from fields in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, which has faced repeated drone and missile attacks since the onset of the Iran conflict.

This signing occurred four days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Iraqi officials in Ankara. The agreement follows a sharp collapse in Iraqi oil exports by more than 80 percent after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, which disrupted shipments through the Gulf and caused monthly oil revenues to fall from approximately $6 billion to under $2 billion.

Sources