Iraq and Turkey discuss increasing oil exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline

Iraq and Turkey have discussed increasing oil export capacities through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, as the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced Baghdad to look for alternative routes for its oil to get out. Iraq’s Oil Minister, Basim al-Abadi, met his Turkish counterpart, Alparslan Bayraktar, in a meeting that both sides described as “very productive”, as Al Jazeera reports.

At the meeting, “increasing export capacities through Ceyhan” was discussed, the Turkish port on the Mediterranean where the oil pipeline from Iraq’s Kirkuk ends. The meeting comes after Ankara and Baghdad signed in August a one-year agreement to keep crude oil flowing through this pipeline, which stretches from northern Iraq towards the Turkish coast.

The de facto closure of Hormuz by Iran has put Baghdad in urgent search of alternative export routes, since the strait is the main artery through which Iraq exports most of its oil. The development underlines the expanding regional effects of the seven-month U.S.–Iran war, which has disrupted the traditional energy flows in the Persian Gulf.

The Iraqi-Turkish talks are taking place at a moment when Tehran demands the lifting of American sanctions as a condition for reopening Hormuz, while Washington continues to focus on the Iranian nuclear file — a gap which, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, is keeping the peace process on hold.