ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack told Rudaw on Wednesday that he played a mediating role in helping resume Iraqi oil exports through the Kurdistan Region, describing his efforts as “bringing temperatures down."
Barrack said he was “very proud of both Erbil and Baghdad for doing the right thing for the country” following the breakthrough.
Iraq on Wednesday resumed exporting oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Turkey after a three-year halt, a senior Iraqi oil official told Rudaw. The move marks a significant development for the country’s energy sector, as exports through the Strait of Hormuz have been effectively suspended due to the ongoing Iran war.
Oil prices fell by at least $2 following the announcement, Reuters reported.
“I was like the barista serving coffee, bringing temperatures down and logic back together,” Barrack told Rudaw’s Namo Abdulla.
Exports through the Kurdistan Region were halted in March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruling suspended the region’s oil shipments to Turkey.
Iraq had heavily relied on the Strait of Hormuz for its oil exports, but the ongoing conflict has effectively closed the vital route.
On Tuesday, Erbil and Baghdad reached a key agreement to export Kirkuk oil via the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Turkey.
The deal came shortly after Iraq’s oil ministry warned that blocking exports through the pipeline posed a “major risk” to the country’s interests.
Baghdad last week formally requested Erbil to export up to 300,000 barrels per day through the pipeline, in addition to around 200,000 barrels produced in the Kurdistan Region.
The ministry said the arrangement could help “alleviate the severity of the crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz” amid escalating regional tensions following US and Israeli military actions against Iran.
Since the closure of the Strait, the federal government has been scrambling to find alternative export routes for its crude, which accounts for around 90 percent of Iraq’s revenues.
Namo Abdulla contributed to this article from New York