Iraq and Turkey Near Deal to Extend Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Exports

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar visited Baghdad on Thursday, July 9, 2026, to finalize a roughly 12-month extension of crude exports through the 970-kilometer Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline; the current agreement expires on July 16. According to The National (July 9, 2026), citing Reuters, the deal is expected to be signed "in the coming days." Iraqi oil output has fallen from 4.3 million barrels a day to 1.4 million (as of May), and flows through the Ceyhan terminal have dropped from a pre-war 3.5 million barrels a day to about 200,000. With most of Iraq's southern exports through the Strait of Hormuz shut off, Ceyhan has become one of Iraq's few working export routes.