The Association of Petroleum Industry in the Kurdistan Region (APIKUR) has urged the US to pressure Baghdad to resume oil exports from the region via Turkey at the Munich Security Conference.

“We need immediate Congressional action to put Government of Iraq leadership on notice that they must implement a full budget for Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and get the oil flowing through the Iraq-Türkiye Pipeline,” APIKUR spokesman Myles Caggins told INSIGHT today.

The two-day conference, presents an opportunity to tell Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani “to promptly resolve the oil and budgetary issues if he expects to get more U.S. financial assistance”, Caggins warned.

Meanwhile, APIKUR called for US action on the “politically-driven blockade” in a letter addressed to Senate whip and chair of the Justice Committee Senator Dick Durbin dated 12 February.

It urges him to raise this “critical issue” with Iraqi and Kurdistan Region leaders during the conference and “pressure” the Iraqi government to “promptly take the steps required to reopen the Iraqi-Türkiye pipeline”, implement an amended federal budget law and provide international oil companies with surety of payment for exports.

“The continued closure is effectively a politically-driven oil blockade that directly harms U.S. interests and investments,” it says, putting the cost of the exports halt at “an estimated $1 billion monthly—while [Iraq is] continuing to receive tax dollars from the U.S.”.

Highlighting the damage to US companies and investment, the letter also suggests that “conditions on future US assistance to Iraq must be considered if Iraq continues to economically strangle the Kurdistan Region and U.S. oil investments, production and export”.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul-Ghani told reporters earlier this week that negotiations between his ministry and international oil companies (IOCs) on resuming crude exports via the Turkish port at Ceyhan were “on the right track” and that he expected agreements would be reached in the near future.

Exports were suspended after Paris-based arbitration over the Iraq-Turkey pipeline issued a decision last March. Ankara says it is ready for exports to resume.