Thursday, April 26, 2007
Turks strike oil export deals with Baghdad
Oil, Turkey
(kurdistan Observer) - 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.
Labels: Iraq, Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization, Kirkuk, KRG, Kursad Tuzmen, oil, PKK, Turkey
