Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
15 March 2013
Oil unites Kurdistan and Turkey
Once at loggerheads,
now best friends
By Goran Sabah Ghafour /
The Kurdish Globe
A natural gas pipeline is
being built that will transport
at least 10 billion
cubic meters of gas annually
to Turkey in return
for refined oil products to
Kurdistan.
In a major move to bring
Kurdistan and Turkey closer, a
natural gas pipeline is being built,
which will transport at least 10
billion cubic meters of gas
annually. This is approximately
over fifth of Turkey's current
consumption. Turkish officials
have refused to publicly confirm
the project that threatens to
aggravate a dispute between
Baghdad and the autonomous
Kurdistan region over energy
resources.
US officials are concerned
that Turkey's strained ties with
Baghdad could have implications
for the rest of the region.
Turkey is defying Washington
and Baghdad in developing a
broad energy partnership with
Iraqi Kurds as it pushes to secure
affordable oil and gas supplies to
fuel its rapid economic growth.
Turkey is pushing ahead
with plans to extend economic
cooperation with Iraq's
Kurdistan region, brushing aside
warnings from the United States
that this approach could lead to
the disintegration of the Iraqi
state.
Iraq's Kurdish region has
become so important to Turkey,
economically and politically,
that Ankara is willing to risk tensions
with the US, its most
important ally, said Celalettin
Yavuz, an analyst at a think tank
in the Turkish capital.
Taner Yildiz, Turkey's
energy minister announced to
the Turkish media that oil
imports from northern Iraq to
Turkey by truck had resumed
after a pause of several weeks
for technical reasons. He said
Turkey was determined to sell
refined-oil products to Iraqi
Kurdistan, the state-run
Amnadolu news agency reported.
Oil exports from northern
Iraq to Turkey have angered the
central-Iraqi government. It said
the trade was illegal, which
Ankara denies.
Yildiz stressed that Turkey
was also buying oil from southern
Iraq because doing otherwise
would be "discrimination".
The Kurdish Regional
Government (KRG) announced
last week its plans to press ahead
with building an oil-export pipeline
to Turkey. "We want to have
an oil pipeline to ourselves,"
said Ashti Hawrami, the Iraqi
Kurdish minister for natural
resources.
Crude from the Kurdistan
region used to be shipped to
world markets through a
Baghdad-controlled pipeline to
Turkey, but exports via that
channel dried up in December,
from a peak of around 200,000
barrels per day (bpd), due to a
row with Baghdad over payments.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
Turkish prime minister, said his
country was not obliged to wait
for a new agreement between the
central Iraqi government and the
KRG over oil exploration and
export rights, even though
Washington wanted Ankara to
be cautious.
"Our economic relations are
getting broader, despite everything,
including America,"
Erdogan said last week, referring
to the KRG. Erdogan, who
has been careful to develop close
relations with the US, freely
acknowledged tensions with
Washington over the issue.
Analysts say the move could
also establish the country as a
regional energy hub, but risks
aggravating tensions in the powder
keg region and damaging
ties with the United States, its
major ally.
Ankara had initially refused
to engage in official contacts
with Iraqi Kurds, fearing that the
establishment of an independent
Kurdish state there could embolden
its own Kurds, some of
whom have waged a nearly
three-decade insurgency.
But as Turkey's economy has
boomed - it grew by more than
8.0 percent in 2010 and 2011 -
Attendants and exhibitors discuss business during the Second
Kurdistan Iraq Oil & Gas Conference in Erbil, December 3,
2012. GLOBE PHOTO/Safin Hamid
and its thirst for energy has
grown, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has moved gradually
to forge trade ties with
Iraqi Kurds.
The burgeoning energy ties
are raising eyebrows in
Washington, where there are
concerns that they could tip the
volatile country towards disintegration
and push an increasingly
isolated Baghdad into Iran's
embrace. "Economic success
can help pull Iraq together," US
Ambassador to Turkey Francis
Ricciardone said earlier this
month.
But "if Turkey and Iraq fail
to optimize their economic relations
... there could be more violent
conflict in Iraq and the
forces of disintegration within
Iraq could be emboldened," he
warned. "... and that would not
be good for Turkey, the United
States, or anybody in the
region."
Turkey has already ruffled
Washington's feathers by continuing
to import Iranian (oil and
gas) despite US efforts to isolate
Tehran over its alleged nuclear
weapons drive. But Ankara has
remained defiant, supporting
Iraqi Kurdistan's right to use part
of its energy resources as it sees
fit.
Erdogan said the regional
Kurdish government "is free to
use this right with whichever
country it wants and we are their
neighbor."
Analysts say energy-hungry
Turkey's dependence on expensive
energy imports from Iran
and Russia are pushing it to find
cheaper sources, and Kurdistan
appears to be the best provider.
"Iraqi sources are the cheapest
and it is a way for Turkey to
diminish its energy dependence,"
Mete Goknel, former
director of Turkey's state-owned
pipeline company Botas, said to
the Arab news online news service.
According to the US Energy
Information Administration,
Turkey has been importing
about half of its crude oil from
Iran, although this is likely to
fall given international sanctions
on Tehran.
In 2011 Turkey was importing
nearly 60 percent of its
natural gas from Iran, with a
fifth coming from Russia.
"Turkey depends on Russia and
Iran on energy and if both countries
close the tap, the Turkish
economy will tank," said an
energy expert who asked to
remain anonymous.
This imported energy has
been responsible for a large part
of Turkey's trade deficit, which
threatens to crimp expansion.
Goknel said Iraq would also
benefit from Turkey becoming a
regional energy hub. "It would
be more advantageous for Iraq to
ship its gas to western markets
through Turkey versus the more
expensive shipping lane, the
strait of Hormuz," he said. A
decision is expected within
months on the route of a separate
pipeline to ship natural gas from
Azerbaijan via Turkey to
Western Europe. However,
Baghdad appears intent on dashing
Ankara's designs to ■ ■ ■
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