KRG to double its oil export to Turkey

20-8-2014 – MESOP Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is seeking to increase its crude oil export to Turkey’s port of Ceyhan where the oil is sent in tankers to world markets.

A Turkish official has told Reuters that preparations to increase oil export to Turkey will end next month and Erbil can double its crude export to Turkey from 120000 barrels a day to 220000. Another source stated the amount of the region’s oil export can reach 25000, adding that the Kurdish region’s oil production capacity has improved. Turkey’s Genel Energy and Chinese Sinopec, two oil firms drilling in the region, have promised to increase their oil production in Taq Taq field, the biggest in the region, to 140000 till the end of August.

Before Islamic State insurgency onto Kurdistan Region, Erbil stated it intends to increase its oil export to 1 million barrels a day by 2015. Reuters has reported the region has made 350 million dollars in its oil export but KRG Natural Resources’ Minister Ashti Hawrami told Rudaw that the region has already sold some 8 million barrels of oil and its oil export can provide the region’s needs to the end of the year.