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Turkey and Iraq extend Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline agreement for one year

Turkey and Iraq extend Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline agreement for one year

The new transit deal keeps Iraqi crude moving to Ceyhan after the previous pact lapsed, while Baghdad and Ankara push ahead on a broader long-term energy framework and seek to strengthen export resilience.

Fact Check
Both Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency confirm every element of the claim: a one-year transit agreement signed August 1, 2026 to keep Iraqi crude moving through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Ceyhan after the previous pact lapsed, plus ongoing talks toward a broader long-term energy framework covering oil, electricity, and water. Additional independent sources (The New Region, Daily Sabah, Oil & Gas Middle East) corroborate the 750,000 bpd figure and the one-year term. The claim's export-resilience framing matches the sourced context of the Hormuz crisis making Ceyhan Iraq's alternative export route.
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Summary

Turkey and Iraq signed a one-year agreement to maintain operations of the Iraq-Turkiye Crude Oil Pipeline, preserving a strategic export route to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan while negotiations continue on a broader long-term framework. The deal, signed by Turkish state pipeline operator BOTAS and Iraq's state-owned oil companies SOMO and NOC after talks in Ankara between Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, guarantees a minimum export capacity of 750,000 barrels per day, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaydi. Bayraktar said the route has become more important as an alternative outlet during the Hormuz crisis and added that Turkey aims to fully utilize the pipeline's 1.5 million-barrel-per-day capacity, with a longer-term vision of moving crude from Iraq, Kuwait and other Gulf countries through Ceyhan. Al-Zaydi described the pact as a strategic milestone and said the two governments and their companies would move immediately on implementation while working toward a wider agreement spanning oil, electricity, water resources and other areas of cooperation.

Terms & Concepts
  • Iraq-Turkiye Crude Oil Pipeline: A cross-border oil export pipeline that carries Iraqi crude to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
  • barrels per day: A standard industry measure for the volume of oil produced, transported or exported each day.
  • export capacity: The maximum volume of oil that infrastructure or an agreement allows to be shipped over a given period.