Turkish Kurdish Energy Cooperation in the Iraqi Conundrum

Turkey Update (CSIS) Jun 19, 2014
Turkey Project ~ Center for Strategic and International Studies

By Craig Bonfield *

Amidst calls for unity in the face of major sectarian violence following the sudden occupation of several major cities in Iraq by the extreme radical Sunni group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil continues its efforts to transport and sell oil through Turkey independent of the central government in Baghdad led by Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Following several months of unsuccessful negotiations, growing tensions and deepening bitterness between Baghdad and Erbil on this issue, on May 22 the tanker United Leadership disembarked from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan carrying the first one million barrels of crude oil pumped to Ceyhan through the connection established by the Kurds linking oilfields in their territory directly to the Iraqi-Turkish Pipeline.

* Research Assistant, CSIS Turkey Project.

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