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Türkiye and Iraq signed a one-year interim agreement on Saturday to keep the Kirkuk-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline running while aiming to raise the flow from 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 750,000 bpd, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced.
The deal, signed on Saturday by Türkiye's state pipeline operator BOTAS and Iraq's state oil companies SOMO and NOC, establishes a temporary framework for operating the pipeline as both governments work toward a broader long-term agreement.
Bayraktar described the agreement as an interim step designed to ensure the effective use of the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline while negotiations continue on a more comprehensive partnership.
"We held a productive meeting at our ministry with Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Hudeir and his delegation," Bayraktar noted.
Bayraktar described the pipeline as a strategic energy corridor that has linked the two countries for nearly half a century, carrying Iraqi crude to global markets through the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
"The pipeline delivers Iraqi oil safely and without interruption to global markets through Ceyhan and, as recent developments in global oil markets have shown, has become more strategic than ever for regional and global energy supply security," he remarked.
"Our goal is to make full use of this strong infrastructure and establish a comprehensive, long-term cooperation that will usher in a new era in Türkiye-Iraq energy partnership by delivering not only Iraq's energy resources but also those of the wider region to global markets through Ceyhan."
The interim agreement follows months of negotiations over the future of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline as the decades-old Türkiye-Iraq crude oil pipeline agreement expired on July 27.
Rather than simply extending the previous framework, Ankara sought a new arrangement that reflects current commercial and legal realities while laying the groundwork to maximize the pipeline's capacity and eventually connect it to Iraq's southern oil fields in Basra.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, stretching roughly 970 kilometers (603 miles) from northern Iraq to Türkiye's Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan, consists of two parallel pipelines with a combined capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day.
Oil flows were suspended for about two and a half years after an international arbitration tribunal ordered Türkiye to pay Iraq $1.5 billion over unauthorized crude exports from Iraq's northern region between 2014 and 2018. Exports resumed only after Baghdad and Erbil reached a new arrangement in September 2025.
During Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's visit to Ankara this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that al-Zaidi had proposed supplying Türkiye with up to 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil per day.
Türkiye's state-owned Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) also agreed to acquire a 15% stake in BP Energy Company of Kirkuk Limited, joining BP and ConocoPhillips in the redevelopment of the giant Kirkuk oil fields, where the initial phase is expected to unlock about 3 billion barrels of reserves.
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