The ruling halts oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdish region through Turkey

BEIRUT — Iraqi officials announced Saturday that Baghdad had won an international arbitration case to halt oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region via Turkey.

Baghdad and Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over the sharing of oil revenues. In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan through an independent pipeline.

Baghdad called the move “smuggling” and “robbery” and filed a lawsuit against Turkey at the International Court of Arbitration, arguing that Turkey was violating the provisions of the 1973 Iraq-Turkey pipeline agreement.

The central government considers it illegal for Irbil to export oil without going through Iraq’s national oil company, while Kurdish authorities say the exercise is meant to compensate for budget transfers withheld by Baghdad from the Kurdish region.

Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement that the ministry, through the national oil sales company SOMO, is “the only entity authorized to manage export operations through the port of Ceyhan in Turkey.”

In the wake of Thursday’s ruling in Paris, the ministry said it would “discuss the mechanisms for exporting Iraqi oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan with the relevant authorities in the region and with the Turkish authorities … in a way that guarantees the continuation of oil exports and the fulfillment of SOMO obligations.”

The Kurdish region’s natural resources ministry said in a statement that the regional government “does not renounce the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan” and that the ruling does not harm its relations with the central government.

The region’s prime minister, Masrour Barzani, said recent talks with Baghdad had “laid the groundwork for us to overcome the arbitration decision” and that a regional government team would travel to Baghdad on Sunday for talks.