Reuters

Flows of northern Iraqi crude oil to Turkey's Ceyhan port have not resumed following Baghdad's request to restart them last week, industry and government sources said, as Turkey's government hangs in election limbo.

Turkey held presidential elections on Sunday but neither of the two key candidates surpassed the 50% vote threshold and a run-off is scheduled for May 28.

Operators at Ceyhan have not even received instructions to prepare for restart of flows, one of the industry sources familiar with the matter added.

Three Iraqi government officials blamed the elections for the delay and said Turkey's pipeline operator BOTAS was still waiting for government confirmation.

Iraq's oil minister wanted flows to resume on Saturday at a rate of 500,000 barrels per day.

Turkey halted flows on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.

The blocked oil consists mainly of oil originating from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.