BAGHDAD, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Iraq has informed Türkiye about the resumption of oil export operations via the Turkish port of Ceyhan, starting on Saturday, said the Iraqi oil ministry on Thursday.
The Iraqi State Organization for Marketing of Oil has notified the Turkish state energy company Petroleum Pipeline Corporation of resuming export and loading operations from Saturday, said Iraqi Minister of Oil Hayan Abdul Ghani in a statement without giving details about the negotiation between the two sides.
The contracts with international companies to market Iraqi crude oil have been finalized, said the minister.
In late March, Iraq halted the exports of some 450,000 barrels per day of oil from its northern fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan through a pipeline after it won an arbitration case against Türkiye over a long dispute on the independent export of oil by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
On April 4, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdish regional government signed an interim agreement to resume Kurdish oil exports via Türkiye. But Türkiye continued to halt the oil flow, saying it wants to negotiate the arbitration before oil exports resume.
Iraq's economy heavily relies on crude oil exports, which account for more than 90 percent of the country's revenues. ■
