13.7m barrels of Kurd oil shipped from Turkey since May, says Yildiz

KT News:

Ceyhan oil terminal

The war with ISIS has not adversely affected the Kurdistan Region’s burgeoning direct oil exports via Turkey.  Since May, Kurd oil delivered to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan has been loaded onto 19 tankers shipping 13.7 million barrels of crude oil, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters today.

“The flow of Kurdish oil continues without any issues. The 20th tanker will be loaded in the coming days,” he said.

Yildiz said Turkey’s state-run Halkbank – which buyers of the Kurd oil make their payments to – holds $400 million for the sold oil and added: “This is a business in which so far $1.3 billion worth of revenues have been made”.

In May the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) began exporting oil via its independent pipeline, which links up with the existing Iraq-Turkey pipeline on the Turkish side of the border.  This oil trade continues despite objections from the Iraq central government in Baghdad.