Reuters: Thousands of tons of smuggled oil flow from Iraqi Kurdistan to neighboring Iran and Turkey

07:56 - 11/07/2024
Kurdistan

Heading to Turkey in the north and Iran in the east, hundreds of oil tankers travel every day from the area of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Reuters noted.

 


The agency has published extensive material revealing details of this thriving shadow trade, generating revenue of approximately $200 million a month.

 

Let us recall that since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi authorities have not controlled the Kurdish territories, where there are significant oil fields.

 


The scale of unofficial exports from the Kurdistan Region is one reason Iraq has been unable to adhere to production cuts agreed with the OPEC oil cartel this year, Iraqi officials say.

 


Iranian and Turkish officials did not respond to requests to comment on the situation, Reuters notes.



Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said that the country's government does not have accurate data on the volume of smuggled oil imported into Iran and Turkey.

 


OPEC reacts quite harshly to violations of the cartel's rules, but no action will obviously be taken against Baghdad, since it is common knowledge that the Kurdish region is beyond its control, said Jim Crane, a researcher at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston.

 


The agency recalls that until last year, the Kurdistan Region exported most of its crude oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, running from the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

 


However, exports of about 450 barrels per day ceased in March 000, when an international tribunal upheld the Iraqi government's demand to stop the shipments, which were occurring without authorization from authorities in Baghdad.

 


But in Kurdistan they were not going to give up their oil revenues, and the oil that came through the pipeline began to be transported illegally by numerous tank trucks.

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