Turkiye takes ‘historic step’ on energy alliance with Iraq

Ankara could person 1 cardinal barrels per time of Iraqi lipid aft a Turkish Petroleum involvement successful the BP-run Kirkuk oilfield.

Turkiye mightiness soon person up to 1 cardinal barrels per time of lipid from Iraq aft buying a involvement successful the British Petroleum-run Kirkuk oilfield successful bluish Iraq, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

At a associated quality league with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi successful Ankara connected Tuesday, Erdogan said state-owned Turkish Petroleum (TPOA) would get a 15 percent involvement successful BP Energy Company of Kirkuk Limited nether a abstracted share‑transfer agreement.

Al-Zaidi was successful Turkiye to sermon bilateral security, trade, transport and h2o management, arsenic good arsenic a caller vigor deal.

The sojourn came conscionable arsenic the Iraq-Turkiye crude lipid statement – which successful 1975 operationalised the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline moving Iraqi crude to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan – expired connected July 27.

Rather than renew the agreement, Turkiye said it was seeking a caller vigor practice model with Iraq.

Erdogan confirmed that al-Zaidi had offered to proviso Turkiye with 1 cardinal bpd. “Yes, that’s correct. Once we transportation 1 cardinal barrels of lipid from our neighbour Iraq, it volition conscionable our needs”, helium said.

‘Diversifying the sources’

“The value of this woody is beyond specified vigor ties,” Mehmet Celik, editorial coordinator for Daily Sabah, told Al Jazeera.

“Turkiye is diversifying its vigor sources, arsenic it has ever done. But with Iraq, determination are 2 different dimensions: information and the improvement roadworthy project.”

“This is not an alternate to existing deals, but alternatively diversifying the sources, arsenic acold arsenic Turkiye is concerned,” helium said, adding that “the concern successful Hormuz has made Turkiye’s proposals regarding alternate vigor and commercialized routes much attractive.”

The motorboat of the US-Israel warfare connected Iran successful February and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz elevated Ankara’s value for Baghdad, which pressed Turkish authorities to resume the export of lipid done the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline aft years of suspension.

“The three-level transportation betwixt Turkiye and Iraq; that is, information and defence, energy, and transportation, portion expanding interdependency, volition besides fortify Turkiye-Iraq ties arsenic the determination concern becomes much complex,” Celik said.

Maintaining relations

Relations betwixt Turkiye and Iraq person fluctuated implicit the past decennary but remained a priority, peculiarly for Iraq successful narration to lipid and h2o resources.

The astir analyzable contented concerns security, peculiarly the beingness of Turkish forces connected Iraqi ungraded to combat the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, oregon PKK, which Turkiye, the US and European Union person designated arsenic a “terrorist” group.

Military estimates suggest that Turkiye has astir 50 bases of varying sizes successful bluish Iraq’s Erbil, Duhok and Nineveh, hosting immoderate 5,000 soldiers and weaponry.

In mid-2025, the PKK announced its disarmament arsenic portion of a bid woody with Ankara to extremity 40 years of warfare against the state, but Turkiye views the equipped group’s beingness successful mountainous parts of bluish Iraq arsenic a nationalist information threat.

“We are successful adjacent dialog with our Iraqi brothers to guarantee that our process of a terror‑free Turkiye and our imaginativeness of a terror‑free portion go a reality,” Erdogan said during the quality league with al-Zaidi.