Northern Iraq & Turkey: From The View Of Energy Politics

Year 2016, Issue: 1, 76 - 89, 30.01.2016

Oğuzhan Akyener

Abstract

Northern
Iraq, with the popular name Kurdish Region, by having an estimated 40 billion
bbl oil and 8 tcm gas reserves (according to OPEC reports), is a strategic
region for Turkey. In addition to oil and gas reserves, other key factors such
as historical background, terrorism, ethnical properties, existing disputes
with the central Iraqi government, Iran and other countries’ strategies in the
region affect the positioning of Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Turkish foreign
affairs.

In the last
decade, new Turkish strategy on improving the social, commercial and political
relationships with the KRG made Turkey the most important strategic partner for
the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Hence, by neglecting the illegal or unofficial
revenue items, sale of oil and gas resources is the vital element for KRG
budget. In addition to this fact, by surpassing the Central Iraqi Government
(CIG), today the only way for KRG to sell her produced oil to the markets is
going through Turkey, via the new built KRG pipeline or via trucks.

As a result
of the partnership, today, KRG is exporting around 600 mb/d oil from Ceyhan
port of Turkey. Furthermore, many Turkish companies (mostly on construction and
food services) are continuing their businesses in KRG governed areas. By
estimating the increasing export volumes of oil and by completing the related
infrastructures in the upcoming years, gas volumes will result in a stronger KRG
and more solid relations with Turkey. However, situation of Syria, and other
effects such as Iran’s influence in the region, continuing disputes of KRG with
CIG, terrorism and ethnical risks for Turkey may change and challenge all the
scenarios that have been written. That is why all the items mentioned above also
have to be taken into consideration while estimating the future partnerships
and interactions between the partners.

As described above, oil and gas resources are
the vital elements for KRG and her relations with Turkey. In addition, possible
cheaper gas import potential for Turkey from KRG can be important in the future.
That is why, in this study, current position of Turkey in Kurdistan will be
specified and future possibilities will be analyzed after making an overview of
KRG, Iraq and the oil and gas market in Kurdish Region.

Keywords

Northern Iraq & Turkey, Energy Politics

References

• 1 Luay Al Khatteeb, “The UN Strikes Back at ISIL's Black Economy”, 2014; accessible from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/luay-al-khatteeb/the-un-strikes-back-at-isil_b_5702240.html 2 U.S. International Energy Agency 3 KRG Ministry of Natural Resources 4 GKPIF, “Kurdistan Oil and Gas Activity Maps”, 2013; accessible from http://gkpinvestor.proboards.com/page/map 5 Western Zagros, Kurdish Region Base Gas Infrastructure, 2015; accessible from http://www.westernzagros.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/141202-Kurdistan-Base-Gas-Infrastucture.jpg