Caspian Report - Issue 06 - Winter 2014

ROBERT M. CUTLER
40
had been the first choice for transit.
11 On February 19 th of this year,
Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for
energy Hussain al-Shahristani was
quoted as saying that Iraqi Kurdistan
had agreed to export crude via
the country’s central oil marketing
body, the State Oil Marketing Organization
(SOMO).
Since late last year, oil had been
pumped through a pipeline to the
Turkish port of Ceyhan, where it was
kept in storage rather than being
sold, in order to allow time to reach
an agreement. That is the agreement
that is now being reported. The Deputy
Prime Minister for energy said,
potentially removing a major sticking
point in a resource row with the
central government.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov, who also visited
Baghdad in February, has offered Iraq
access to the SGC via TANAP. Iraqi gas
is ready to be delivered in 2016, while
TANAP will not enter into service before
2018-19. 12
4. CONCLUSION
Natural gas from Shah Deniz Two
through the SGC is important to Europe
for diversifying its energy supply.
The EU imports slightly over half of its
energy supply, including two-thirds of
its natural gas. Natural gas represents
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN NATURAL GAS RESERVES
Recoverable Gas Reserves in the Levant Basin: 3.4 tcm
Proven Reserves: 1000-1206 bcm
a. Israel
b.Cyprus
535 bcm
bcm/proven-recoverable
285 bcm
102-170 bcm
114-127 bcm
50 bcm
28 bcm
Leviathan
Tamar Aphrodite Tanin, Mari-B, Noa, Karish Palestine
Dalit, Dolphin,
Shimshon
11
. Ahmed Rasheed, “UPDATE 2-Iraq says Kurds agree to export oil via central marketing body,”
Reuters, 19 February 2014, .
For background, see Robert M. Cutler “Iraq opens the door to
Nabucco,” Asia Times OnLine, 6 January 2011, .
12
. Compare: Viktoriia Panfilova, “Gazovye kombinatsii Baku i Ankary,” Vestnik Kavkaza, 14 February
2014, ; and
“Azerbaijan offers Iraq access to Europe gas pipelines,” Agence France-Presse, 10 February 2014,
.
See also Gulmira Rzayeva, Natural Gas in the Turkish Domestic Energy Market:
Policies and Challenges, NG-82 (Oxford: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, February 2014), at
.