KurdistanObserver.com
Turkey, Iraq Strike Tentative Oil Deal,
Bypassing KRG
ANKARA, Turkey, April 25 Turkish officials say
meetings with Iraqi leaders last week included new oil export deals with
Baghdad, bypassing Iraqi Kurds.
Turkey threatened to stop exporting needed fuel products to Iraq after Baghdad
told Ankara it would have to deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government
regarding shipments. Kurdistan, like the rest of Iraq, faces a shortage of
transportation, cooking and heating fuels.
"Iraqis clearly understood that it is not possible for them to meet their needs
of oil products without Turkey," Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said after
the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization said it would retake control over
shipment negotiations. Tuzmen said the two sides struck a tentative one-year
deal to exchange crude for oil products. The northern Iraq pipeline no longer
works, having been bombed each time it begins operation, and Ankara would
retrieve the oil via tanker.
"The Iraqi delegation said they can export 20,000 barrels a day of crude oil
from Kirkuk but that they first have to ask Baghdad," Tuzmen said. "We have
reviewed our bilateral relations during the meetings. Iraqis said they want to
make a one-year-long oil trade deal with Turkish companies. We have agreed on
that." The meeting took place as tensions between Iraq and Turkey escalated.
Turkey insists the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk should not be added to the
control of the KRG. And Ankara says it may enter Kurdish Iraq if the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, or PKK, continues to launch attacks. The PKK is labeled a
terrorist organization by the United States and European Union and wants an
independent Kurdish state carved out of the Iraqi, Turkish, Syrian and Iranian
Kurdish regions.
In response, KRG officials said they would meet any Turkish troops with their
own, casting a shadow of violence on the oil-rich and relatively calm Kurdistan
region.
