🔻Turkey and Iraq in talks for a long-term agreement in the oil and gas sector

Iraq and Turkey are holding talks to reach a cooperation agreement in the oil and gas sector.

According to Iraq’s official news agency (INA), Iraqi Oil Minister Bassim Muhammad Khuzir and Alparslan Bayraktar, Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, met in Ankara.

In this regard, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil has issued a statement saying that during the meeting, strengthening bilateral cooperation in the development of oil and gas infrastructure, the petrochemical industry, and energy trade between the two countries was discussed and reviewed.

Following disruption to its oil exports, Iraq is seeking to create a deeper strategic partnership—exports that had fallen by more than 80% after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

To bypass these obstacles, the two countries have now turned to alternative transit routes.

In August, a one-year agreement was signed between Turkey’s state-owned company BOTAS and Iraq’s state-owned oil companies, SOMO and NOC (NOC), to increase the transfer of crude oil via the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline.