Iraq restarted exports of Kirkuk oil, halted a year ago due to a standoff between the central government and Kurdish Regional Government, after a new government in Baghdad agreed with a tentative deal with Erbil, Iraq Ministry of Oil says.
The Turkey pipeline is the only one available to Kirkuk for exports.
The region exported 260,000 barrels of crude oil through a pipeline to Turkey, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad on Saturday. At an average price of $61.09 per barrel, total revenues exceeded $6 billion, Jihad said.
Nearly $16 million of that comes from the Ceyhan sales. Iraq also exported more than 100.9 million barrels from its central and southern oil fields in November.
The deal signals that new Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban are ready to work with Erbil despite previous tensions and a failed independence referendum in September 2017.
The halting of exports from Kirkuk in October 2017 stopped almost 300,000 bpd flowing out of Iraq toward Turkey and international markets – causing a net revenue loss of some $8 billion over the past year.
