Iraq has not heard back from Turkish state energy company BOTAS on a request to restart oil export flows through a pipeline that runs from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the country’s oil minister said.

Should the flow of oil resume on Saturday as the ministry has requested, Iraq would pump 500,000 barrels per day, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters during a visit to a southern oilfield in Basra on Friday.

Turkey halted 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 after an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration ruling.

The ICC ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018.

It is not clear when flows will resume.

Turkey has sought negotiations relating to the damages it was ordered to pay in the case and wants a permanent resolution to open arbitration issues before resuming flows, sources previously told Reuters.

Turkey also has presidential elections on May 14, an event some observers believe could lead to delays.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra; writing by Omar Abdel-Razek and Timour Azhari; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alexander Smith)