“Investing in Iraq’s oil”: Ankara’s condition for concluding a new agreement with Baghdad
“Investing in Iraq’s oil”: Ankara’s condition for concluding a new agreement with Baghdad
2026-05-03
Shafaq News – Baghdad
The Iraqi Oil Ministry revealed on Sunday that negotiations between Baghdad and Ankara are continuing regarding the resumption of oil exports, noting that there are differences related to the wording of the previous agreement, in contrast to a shared direction towards new investment projects in the oil sector.
Undersecretary of the Ministry, Bassem Mohammed, told Shafaq News Agency that “discussions with the Turkish side are still ongoing, but Ankara does not want to return to the same draft of the previous agreement, and instead proposes entering into investment projects inside Iraq, especially in the field of the oil industry.”
Mohammed added that “the government and the Ministry of Oil are moving towards engaging in these projects in a way that ensures the renewal of the agreement and achieves common benefits for both countries.”
Regarding domestic supplies, he explained that the Ministry of Oil is working to pump oil from the southern fields towards the north, to compensate for the shortage in Kirkuk oil supplies to the northern refineries.
Mohammed pointed out that “the current export rate of Kirkuk oil is about 200,000 barrels per day, including about 30,000 barrels from the Kurdistan Region,” noting that “the decrease in production in the region is due to the shutdown of a number of oil companies operating there.”
The Federal Oil Ministry Undersecretary concluded by saying that “the return of those companies to work would raise export volumes through Türkiye to between 400,000 and 500,000 barrels per day.”
shafaq.com
