Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said today that the new energy deal Turkey is seeking with Iraq should ensure the Iraq-Turkey pipeline (ITP) is used at its full capacity — around 1.6mn b/d.
In comments carried by state news agency Anadolu, Bayraktar said the pipeline has never operated at full capacity. "We have invested significantly over the past years to keep this pipeline operational," he said. "In the new draft agreement, we emphasised the need for a mechanism that would ensure the pipeline operates at full capacity."
Bayraktar said he discussed this in a meeting with Iraq's oil minister Hayyan Abdulghani following the Opec seminar in Vienna this month.
"As you know, there is currently no flow. Even when there was, it never reached full capacity. We have invested heavily in recent years to keep the line running," Bayraktar said he told his Iraqi counterpart. "In the draft of the new agreement, we proposed a mechanism to ensure the line is used in full. The text we submitted reflects that intention."
Iraq said last week that it received a Turkish proposal to renew and expand an energy agreement between the two countries, shortly after Turkey announced that it will formally terminate, in July next year, a decades-old agreement covering the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline, in line with its original terms. Turkey is aiming for a more comprehensive energy co-operation agreement than the previous one, covering co-operation in oil, gas, petrochemicals and electricity.
The pipeline was shut in March 2023 after Ankara lost an international arbitration case and was ordered to pay around $1.47bn to Baghdad over "unauthorised exports" between 2014 and 2018. The pipeline previously transported 400,000-450,000 b/d of crude from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Bayraktar also noted that the draft agreement submitted to Baghdad includes an option to extend the pipeline further south, according to Anadolu.
"The entire pipeline doesn't need to be filled with oil from Iraq. To reach those volume levels, the pipeline must extend further south," Bayraktar said. The majority of Iraq's oil fields are concentrated in the southern Basrah governorate.
Bayraktar also highlighted recent risks during the 12-day Israel–Iran war, when the closure of the Strait of Hormuz became a real threat. "This shows that diversifying export routes is beneficial for [Iraq] as well," he said.
"We've set July 2026 as the final deadline to complete the pipeline. But completing it earlier would be even better," Bayraktar concluded.
