Iraq ready to sell oil to Turkey, Iran

BAGHDAD

Iraq is talking to Turkey to allow SOMO, the state’s oil marketing company, to sell the Kirkuk crude that arrives by pipeline in Ceyhan, as it also plans to purchase Kirkuk oil to Iran, Baghdad has said.

The crude from the northern regions of Iraq is carried by a pipeline across the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory and then Turkey. It is exported from the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan in the Mediterranean province of Adana.

Iraq wants the Kurdistan region to stop independent crude exports and to hand over sales operations to SOMO, the company’s acting director general Alaa al-Yasiri told reporters in Baghdad.

Iraq is in talks with Turkey on the issue, he said.

The pipeline carried on average 419,000 bpd in October, down from 600,000 bpd in September, said Farid al-Jadir, the director general of North Oil Company (NOC), which operates Kirkuk.