ISTANBUL
Turkey's policy of allowing Iraq's Kurdish region to export oil has helped resolve the Kurds' dispute with Baghdad, the Turkish energy minister said on Thursday.
"Turkey worked in the past year towards a formula that will benefit the Kurdish Regional Government and the Federal Government of Iraq, and the agreement between the two parties last week on sharing oil export revenue proves to be a very positive outcome for both," said Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.
"The 35 cargoes of around 25 million barrels of crude oil from north Iraq that have just been exported, creating over $2 billion in revenue for both parties, is a major contribution," Yildiz said, speaking at the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit 2014 in Istanbul.
Some questioned whether the sale of Kurdish region oil to international markets via Turkey was legitimate or not. "But, in the end, Turkey contributed to the normalization of all of Iraq by facilitating the process," Yildiz said.
Yildiz also said that Turkey supports policies of energy supply security, not only for Turkey, but also for all its surrounding regions including the European Union.
"The Ukraine crisis, which raised concerns about energy supply security for the EU, is here to stay. The agreement that was reached between the EU, Ukraine and Russia recently will only provide a temporary solution until March 2015," Yildiz said.
"We look forward next year for the coordination of the energy policies of the US, the EU and Turkey with regard to many of the challenges we face," U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said at the summit. The Ukraine crisis may have left the EU countries short of supply of crucial Russian natural gas before winter this year.
"The conflict in Ukraine has led to a very comprehensive look into energy security," Moniz said. "The U.S, and our colleagues in Europe are very committed to the idea that energy security is not something for just every individual country to consider alone, It is a collective responsibility among allies and friends."
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