Economic expert Nabil Al-Marsoumi revealed on Monday that the Iraqi judiciary denied the Iraqi Ministry of Oil’s request to terminate these companies’ contracts with Iraqi Kurdistan, Shafaq News reported.
The Karkh Court of Appeal canceled previous court decisions that considered the contracts concluded between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and oil companies invalid, according to Al-Marsoumi.
Gazprom Neft, Addax Petroleum, Dana Gas, DNO, Genel Energy, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, HKN Energy, ShaMaran Petroleum Corp, and WesternZagros are the nine oil companies.
Since March 2023, crude oil flows along the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline, which formerly handled around 0.5 percent of the world’s oil supply, have been suspended due to legal and financial uncertainty.
After the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris decided in March 2023 that Ankara had broken a 1973 treaty by enabling oil exports without the federal government’s approval, flows via the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline were stopped.
Several foreign oil companies have halted production, and shipments have not yet resumed despite multiple discussions between officials in Iraqi Kurdistan, the federal government in Baghdad, and Turkish authorities.
