Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Nechirvan Barzani, prime
minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, to
discuss expanding
energy cooperation.
Iraq’s Kurds are hoping to start pumping oil to Turkey
before the end of this year via a pipeline controlled by the
central government in Baghdad, Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional
Government said upon his arrival in Ankara yesterday, according
to CNNTurk television today.
Turkey and Iraq’s Kurds are also working on contracts to
expand the operations of Turkey’s state-backed Turkish Energy
Company, which holds exploration licenses in 13 blocks in
northern Iraq, and are also discussing the construction of a
natural gas pipeline between Turkey and the neighboring Kurdish
region, the Energy Ministry said.
Erdogan and Barzani were expected to review contracts and
may possibly sign some deals in today’s meeting in Ankara, the
Energy Ministry said. Barzani was expected to travel to Baghdad
after the meetings in Turkey to inform the central government
about progress, Turkey’s state-run TRT television said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was also expected to
visit Turkey next month to discuss energy cooperation, the
Energy Ministry said.
Turkey wants to fully utilize the Baghdad-controlled
Turkey-Iraq pipeline through which Iraqi Kurds are expected to
start pumping oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean oil terminal of
Ceyhan. Turkey separately want to build a new oil pipeline to
carry oil from Basra to Turkey, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said yesterday.
(Bloomberg, 27 Nov., 2013)
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