A shipment of oil from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that passed through Turkey’s Ceyhan pipeline nearly two weeks ago is sitting without a buyer in a Moroccan port, according to ship tracking data from Thursday.
The shipment, which was sent to Ceyhan via a pipeline constructed by the KRG, has enflamed already high tensions between the KRG and Baghdad — in addition to straining Ankara’s relations with the latter. The Iraqi federal government took legal action against Turkey last month for facilitating the shipment. The issue is a source of concern for Washington, which said it does not support oil exports conducted without Baghdad’s consent.
The KRG opened its new pipeline last December and began shipping oil to Turkey, angering the central government in Baghdad and prompting it to cut the KRG’s 17 percent share of the national budget in January. The KRG has since stated that the cuts left it with no choice but to sell its oil independently. According to KRG Spokesman Safeen Dizayee, US Vice President Joe Biden called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki repeatedly and requested that the KRG’s budget be reinstated. Al-Maliki told Biden that Baghdad would do so, but has failed to deliver on its promise, according to Dizayee.
There has been much speculation about the shipment’s final destination. Some analysts believed it was headed across the Atlantic while Energy Minister Taner Yıldız had said it was destined for Italy and Germany; now it’s halted in Morocco, which Dizayee said on Tuesday was its final destination.