Iraq says Turkey backs Baghdad in feud over Kurd oil exports

Iraq said Turkey agreed to deal exclusively with its central government over exports of Kurdish crude oil, a step that could disrupt shipments from the independence-seeking Kurd region.

Turkey supports Iraq’s control over all crude that the OPEC nation exports through a Turkish-controlled pipeline, the Iraqi prime minister said Thursday. The comments suggest the Turks may be reviewing their policy of letting Iraq’s landlocked Kurds export oil independently through the same pipeline.

Crude was flowing normally through the network on Thursday. The Kurds export less than 600,000 barrels a day, according to a tweet by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Sept. 24.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim asserted his country’s support for “restricting oil exports to the federal authorities” in Iraq, he said in a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Haider al-Abadi, according to an emailed statement from Al-Abadi’s office in Baghdad.

The semi-autonomous Kurds voted Monday overwhelmingly in favor of a referendum on independence from Iraq. Turkey, with its own restive Kurdish minority, condemned the referendum, which is nonbinding. Turkey is both a customer and a conduit for Kurdish oil, yet its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Monday that his country can choose to “close the valves” on exports from Iraq’s Kurdish region through the pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.