KRG says oil flow to Turkey interrupted after attacks

ARBIL

Crude oil export from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey’s Ceyhan Port has been interrupted since Feb. 16 following attacks on the export pipeline near the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa in Turkey, said the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a written statement on. Feb. 18. 

“Such attacks directly damage the welfare of the people of Kurdistan Region and harm the KRG’s ability to pay its peshmerga and fund the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL],” said the statement. 

With the drop in the global oil prices, the KRG is already struggling to pay the salaries of its military arm, the peshmerga, and other security forces from its oil export revenue. 

“These attacks only make the battle against terrorism harder,” it added. 

The Ministry of Natural Resources have condemned the theft attempts and the perpetrators of this sabotage inside Turkey and called for better controls to immediately stop their actions. 

The KRG exported 18.6 million barrels of crude oil (an average of 601,811 barrels per day) in January through the KRG pipeline network to the port of Ceyhan, according to the latest oil report of the ministry.