Turkey proposes Iraq oil pipeline extension as Hormuz crisis bites
With Iran's chokehold on exports through the Strait of Hormuz triggering an international energy crisis, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has proposed extending the oil pipeline that links Turkey and Iraq all the way to the southern port city of Basra.
Turkey and Iraq have been connected by a 970-kms pipeline since 1976, linking Iraq’s oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan.
While a branch line carrying oil from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to Turkey has operated for years, the main Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has remained largely idle since an Islamic State attack on the infrastructure in 2014.
Iraq announced this week that it expects to complete repair work on the pipeline within the next week or so. It also announced a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government to use its infrastructure to resume oil exports to Turkey.
Mehmet Alaca, an independent regional expert specialising in Iraqi affairs, told Middle East Eye that work on the idle pipeline would likely continue for several more weeks, as the Iraqi government is keen to bring it back online.
Arguing that extending the pipeline would diversify Baghdad's access to international oil markets, Bayraktar said Iraq could initially pump between 170,000 and 250,000 barrels of oil per day through Turkey, as Brent crude prices climbed to $108 on Wednesday. Turkey itself consumes more than one million barrels of oil per day.
Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, imposing economic costs on Gulf energy trade in response to the US-Israeli war on the country. In 2025, around 20 million barrels of oil and oil products passed through the strait each day.
Extending the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline
Bayraktar said the Iraq-Turkey pipeline has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, adding that Ankara had been warning Baghdad for years that it would have no alternative if the strait were ever closed.
“We also proposed this: let us extend this pipeline, which currently runs up to Kirkuk, all the way to Basra,” Bayraktar said in a live interview on Turkey’s NTV channel.
“Today, Iraq exports approximately three million barrels of crude oil per day. About 1.5 million barrels of that, nearly 50 percent, could actually be transported through this pipeline, with the potential to reach new customers in the Mediterranean basin in particular.”
Bayraktar said he hoped Iraqi officials now understood the importance of Turkey’s proposal, now that they are experiencing the consequences of lacking an alternative route.
Alaca, the energy expert, said Iraq was considering such an extension to Basra as part of the Development Road project, which envisions a network of roads and railways linking Basra to Turkey and connecting Iraq onward to Europe.
He added that progress on the project has been slow, as Iraqi domestic politics remain mired in disagreements and power-sharing disputes. Baghdad has yet to approve a prime minister, with consensus proving difficult among parties with differing political and sectarian leanings.
Any effort to build such a pipeline extension, however, would likely take at least several years and cost several billion dollars, depending on the route and the supporting infrastructure required to ensure smooth operations.
Turkey-Saudi Arabia plans
Bayraktar also said that Turkey and Saudi Arabia were discussing plans to build an electricity interconnector that could eventually help transmit power onward to Europe.
“We are working on an electricity transmission line from Saudi Arabia to Turkey, and the transfer of electricity to Europe via Turkey,” he said.
'The Saudis want the roads, cables and trains to go through Syria'
- western official
“Therefore, Turkey is now also a country where you can build this value chain.”
Middle East Eye reported in February that Saudi Arabia is considering an electricity cable project with Greece that would bypass Israel in favour of Syria.
The project would connect the Gulf state to Europe through a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection.
“For Saudi Arabia, Damascus is at the heart of regional connectivity,” a western official familiar with Riyadh’s investment drive told MEE.
“The Saudis want the roads, cables and trains to go through Syria.”
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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