KRG Ministry of Natural Resources

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq - The flow of crude oil from the Kurdistan Region to Ceyhan was halted yesterday following theft from the export pipeline in Turkey.

The thieves struck the pipeline near Urfa at 0545 am on the first day of the Eid holiday. No repair crews were on duty. A crew was due to start work on the repairs today, September 25^th, though the exact time for flows to restart was unknown at the time of writing.

Persistent theft from the Iraq-Turkey crude oil pipeline in the southeast of Turkey continues to damage the welfare of the people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq at a critical time for their security and stability.

Revenue from crude oil export through the pipeline to Ceyhan represents the Kurdistan Region’s main means of survival. Without such revenue, salaries of Peshmerga, the security forces and other key government workers cannot get paid.  

These treacherous acts of theft and sabotage harm the ability of Kurds across the region to fight Islamic State terrorism.

The Kurdistan Regional Government therefore calls once again on the perpetrators, and on those who control them and who profit from their activities, to immediately halt the theft of oil from the pipeline carrying crude oil from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.