Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar stated that mutual receivables and interests will be calculated in the ongoing enforcement case in Washington following the arbitration decision covering the 2014-2018 period regarding the Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline and said, "We will look at who is the creditor accordingly. That decision has not been made yet." he said.
Bayraktar answered journalists' questions before the Cabinet Meeting held at the Presidential Complex yesterday.
Bayraktar stated that the enforcement process regarding the implementation of the arbitration decision regarding the 2014-2018 period regarding the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline continues in Washington, the capital of the USA, and said:
"We objected to the first decision to the court in Paris. We wanted the legal procedure to be completed, but the main thing we are looking at now is the ongoing enforcement case in Washington. An accounting will be made there. Interest will be calculated so that our receivables come from a long time ago. Accordingly, that period will be closed. The arbitration case for the period after 2018 continues."
Emphasizing that the pipeline agreement in question will not be extended, Bayraktar said, "We said a year ago that we would not renew this agreement. This agreement was signed in 2010, and Iraq took us to arbitration in 2014. Do you want to continue with an agreement that creates disagreements? We do not want to. This agreement does not work. It has left us alone with arbitration. Therefore, there must be a new agreement." he said.
Underlining that they decided to make a new agreement on the process, Bayraktar continued as follows:
"Last year, we said that we would not renew the agreement and we sent them a new draft agreement, but there were elections in Iraq and the government was newly formed. Therefore, it is almost impossible to negotiate with them now and make it to the end of July. It is not something that can be done in 3 weeks. As an interim solution, we told them to make a one-year oil transportation agreement with BOTAŞ. In other words, let BOTAŞ carry your oil for a year. If we can reach an agreement in 3 months within that year, if we can reach an agreement in 6 months, let's reach an agreement in 6 months. New Let's call it ITP (Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline Agreement), a more comprehensive new pipeline agreement. We have a goal to take the line to Basra. Therefore, let's leave some time for negotiations, but let the flow stop from here to there. They also told us that they would need a capacity of 750 thousand barrels. But we said okay, we will allocate 750 thousand barrels to you, and we want to sign a new and more comprehensive ITP within a year."
Regarding the extension of the line from Kirkuk to Basra and increasing its capacity, Bayraktar said, "We also met with the Prime Minister of Iraq. We said let's increase the capacity to 2.5 million barrels. If Kuwait wants, Kuwait should put its oil in this pipeline. If there are others who want it, let them put it from the Gulf. We said comprehensive things like let's build a natural gas pipeline right away. Let's dig it once. Let's put two pipelines. We talked about a lot of things like Qatar gas can come, other gas sources can come." made his assessment.
Stating that the arbitration processes will be one of the topics of the negotiations with Iraq, Bayraktar said that there are a few issues that have not yet been finalized between the parties regarding the proposal for BOTAŞ to transport oil for a year.
Bayraktar stated that Türkiye is ready on this issue and that they expect the issues in question to be resolved.