Turkey and Iraq Sign One-Year Oil Pipeline Deal to Maintain Kirkuk-Ceyhan Exports
The agreement, signed after the expiry of a decades-old bilateral accord, sets a daily transit capacity of 750,000 barrels while the two sides negotiate a broader energy framework.
Turkey and Iraq signed a one-year agreement on Saturday to maintain crude oil flows through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, extending a decades-old bilateral deal that expired on Monday. The accord sets a daily transit capacity of 750,000 barrels, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
The agreement was signed in Ankara between Turkish state pipeline operator BOTAS and Iraqi state oil companies SOMO and the National Oil Company (NOC), following what Bayraktar described as a "productive" meeting with Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair. It serves as a stopgap while the two governments negotiate a longer-term comprehensive framework covering oil, electricity and water resources.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called the deal "an important strategic milestone to ensure the uninterrupted flow of our oil exports and strengthen economic cooperation." The pipeline, which runs from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, currently carries about 170,000 barrels per day, according to Turkish data, well below its 1.5 million barrel-per-day capacity. The agreement comes as Baghdad seeks to diversify export routes following disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S.-Iran war began in February, reducing reliance on its southern terminals.
Turkey aims to fully utilise the pipeline and is considering extending it to southern Iraqi fields, while a separate project under discussion would connect Basra to western Iraq and onward to Ceyhan and Syria’s Baniyas port. Negotiations for a long-term transit agreement continue alongside the one-year deal.
| Atlantic / Anglosphere press | +0.20 | neutral |
|---|---|---|
| Iranian & allied press | −0.10 | neutral |
| Arab Levant-Maghreb press | 0.00 | neutral |
Turkey and Iraq secure an alternative to the Gulf, strengthening energy security by bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
The bloc highlights the deal as a rational response to geopolitical risks, using the context of Hormuz closures to legitimise the pipeline as a necessary diversification.
The Iranian bloc mentions the Iran-Turkey gas deal expiration; atlantica omits that, focusing only on Hormuz.
Iran watches cautiously as Turkey and Iraq draw closer, highlighting the expiry of its own gas deal as a warning.
By linking the pipeline deal to the imminent end of Iran’s gas export contract with Turkey, the bloc frames the new agreement as a potential shift in regional energy alliances, suggesting Iranian interests may be sidelined.
The atlantica bloc emphasises Hormuz closures as the main driver; the iraniana bloc omits that context, focusing instead on bilateral timing and Iran's gas deal.
Gulf countries diversify export routes, and the Turkey-Iraq deal is a piece of this broader strategy.
The bloc universalizes the pipeline deal as part of a regional trend, using data on Hormuz traffic to normalize the move as a logical response to a shared vulnerability, thereby reducing its bilateral specificity.
The Iranian bloc's focus on Iran's gas deal is omitted; instead, the Hormuz risk is central.
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