APIKUR applauds U.S. efforts to restart Kurdistan oil exports

The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) applauds U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s efforts to restart oil exports from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including in a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on February 25, 2025. According to a readout of the call published by the State Department, the two agreed on the need to quickly reopen the Iraq-Türkiye Pipeline, and to honor contractual terms for U.S. companies working in Iraq to attract additional investment.

The closure of this pipeline since March 2023 has denied landlocked Kurdistan’s access to a vital outlet to international markets and has affected U.S. political and commercial interests, led to market uncertainty and threatened the region’s economic and security stability. The resulting loss of revenues to Kurdistan, Iraq, and the APIKUR companies has totaled $27 billion and counting.

APIKUR also welcomes the Iraqi Prime Minister’s address to the Erbil Forum on February 26, 2025 that his government is now seeking to turn a “new page” with oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region.

These statements come in the wake of a series of statements by senior Baghdad and Erbil officials suggesting that exports are set to resume imminently.

As has been repeatedly made clear, APIKUR member companies remain prepared to immediately resume exports as soon as formal agreements are reached to provide surety of payment for past and future exports consistent with our existing contractual legal and commercial terms. There has not yet been any outreach in this regard to APIKUR member companies.

The legal validity of the APIKUR member contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government was recently upheld by the Iraqi appellate courts. This ruling, together with the passage of a key amendment to the Iraqi 2023-2025 budget law, have created a legal and political framework within which agreements can be reached.