By Bosphorus News Energy Desk
On October 29, 2026, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) rejected allegations that oil was being smuggled from northern Iraq through Syria into Türkiye. The response followed remarks by Ala Talabani, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who said Baghdad had asked Ankara to halt the shipments.
Speaking on Al-Oula television on October 28, Talabani, a former Iraqi lawmaker and adviser on women's affairs, also repeated another lawmaker's claim that the Kurdistan Region produces 650,000 barrels of oil a day. She provided no shipment records or details of the reported request to Ankara.
Erbil Points to Federal Oversight
In its October 29 response, the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources said 42 representatives of Iraq's federal Oil Ministry supervise the Region's official exports to Türkiye. The North Oil Company handles those operations in cooperation with the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), the ministry said, adding that revenues from crude sold through SOMO go to the federal Finance Ministry.
To dispute the production estimate, the ministry cited Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy engaged by Iraq's federal Oil Ministry to assess output and costs. It put current production at about 255,000 barrels a day, with a possible rise to 308,000 by 2027 if companies receive outstanding payments and security conditions permit further investment. Those figures are the KRG's account of the consultancy's assessment, which was not independently available for review.
The ministry rejected claims that international oil companies in the Region belonged to ruling families. It said federal officials and independent experts could inspect oilfields and export meters, and called for evidence of the alleged smuggling.
The 42 inspectors described by Erbil oversee official exports to Türkiye. Talabani, however, alleged a route through Syria. Oversight of authorized shipments cannot establish whether oil also moved outside that system, and no records identifying a shipment along the alleged route have been made public.
Oil Deliveries and the Türkiye Pipeline
The exchange comes amid negotiations over Iraq's 2027 federal budget. A draft obtained by Rudaw would require the KRG to deliver at least 400,000 barrels a day through SOMO, while Erbil is proposing 250,000 to 280,000. The higher requirement has not become law and exceeds the current production level the KRG reported this week.
For the official export route, Türkiye and Iraq signed a one-year transport agreement on August 1. Under the deal between BOTAŞ, SOMO and the North Oil Company, 750,000 barrels a day of capacity on the Silopi-Ceyhan pipeline system is allocated to the Iraqi companies. That is reserved capacity, not a record of actual shipments.
The two governments subsequently opened talks on a broader energy framework covering pipelines, oil and gas trade, refining, petrochemicals and electricity. Their public accounts of those talks do not confirm Talabani's reported request to Ankara.
The Ceyhan Arbitration
The dispute over who can authorize northern Iraqi oil exports has a lengthy legal history. On February 13, 2023, an International Chamber of Commerce tribunal issued an award over earlier shipments through Ceyhan, finding that Türkiye had breached pipeline arrangements by loading crude contrary to instructions from Iraq's federal Oil Ministry. After Turkish counterclaims were offset, the award stood at approximately $1.47 billion in Iraq's favor, before further interest calculations.
The Paris Court of Appeal rejected Türkiye's bid to annul the award on March 10, 2026. In Washington, a federal magistrate judge recommended confirming the award on September 23 without fixing a final payable amount, as interest calculations remained in dispute. The recommendation is not a final district court judgment.
That arbitration concerns Ceyhan shipments years before the alleged movement of oil through Syria. Talabani has identified neither a shipment on that route nor a date for the prime minister's reported approach to Ankara. Erbil has asked the federal Oil Ministry, whose staff it says monitor the authorized exports, to produce evidence of any smuggling.
Sources: Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Natural Resources, Iraqi Council of Representatives, BOTAŞ, Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Paris Court of Appeal, US District Court for the District of Columbia, Rudaw, Shafaq News, Bosphorus News review and reporting.