“Do not rush to celebrate.” A British view of the French court's decision on Kurdistan's oil: an emp

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[size=52]“Do not rush to celebrate.” A British view of the French court's decision on Kurdistan's oil: an empty Iraqi victory[/size]

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On Wednesday, the British "Middle East Eye" website saw that Baghdad was too hasty to announce that it had achieved victory after the decision of the International Arbitration Court in Paris last Thursday, that Turkey had violated the agreement between them, through its direct oil trade with the Kurdistan Regional Government since 2013. And asked Ankara to pay $ 1.4 billion in compensation.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi Ministry of Oil praised the court's decision, and Iraqi officials were quick to make public statements to local and international media, while Turkey stopped pumping Iraqi oil through the port of Ceyhan on Saturday morning, which constitutes half a percent of global oil supplies.[/size]
[size=45]However, the British report translated by Shafaq News agency, quoting Western and Turkish sources familiar with the court case, presents a different picture, as they say that Baghdad does not deal with the full scope of the ruling related to the Pipeline Agreement (ITP) between Iraq and Turkey, which was signed in 1973 and specifies Understandings related to the export of Iraqi oil to Turkey through the port of Ceyhan.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted a Western source familiar with the arbitration case as saying, "They can celebrate however they want, but I will definitely fire their lawyer for carrying out a failed mission." The source explained that the Iraqis “claimed a violation of the contract under five categories: storage, transportation, exclusive use, and source and loading.” They were only able to win their claim in respect of the load.”[/size]
[size=45]The report stated that in 2014 Baghdad filed a lawsuit against Turkey and demanded compensation of $33 billion due to loss of revenue and damage to its interests, and last month it requested compensation of $58 billion from Ankara for all oil sales that took place until 2022, except The court ultimately awarded them only $1.4 billion in damages for the period from 2014-2018, pending interest rates.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted the sources as saying that the court decided that the Kurdistan Regional Government is a subsidiary of the Iraqi government, and therefore it is a legitimate entity under the “ITP” deal.[/size]
[size=45]A Western source said, "Therefore, Turkey was not mistaken when it was storing and transporting oil with instructions from the Kurdistan Regional Government." The source added that the court also rejected Iraqi claims for damages under exclusive use.[/size]
[size=45]The sources indicated that the court considered that Turkey violated the contract only by loading the tankers with oil that was transported to the port of Ceyhan under the instructions of the Kurdistan Regional Government, given that the 2010 amendment to the “ITP” clearly says that the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and “SOMO” are the only authority. The authorized person who can issue download orders.[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that through this violation, the court assessed whether Ankara imposed additional transportation fees on Iraq and whether it obtained illegal discounts on the price of oil and issued a ruling in favor of Baghdad. But the court also ruled that 50 percent of the loss of revenue due to the lower oil price must be borne by the Iraqi government, because the KRG, as an organ of the Iraqi government, benefited from these sales and used them for its expenditures.[/size]
[size=45]The report also quoted another Western source as saying, "There is another issue that Baghdad does not want to talk about, which is related to Turkey's counter-claims on a range of issues from low pipeline capacity to unpaid transportation fees that go back decades." He added, "The court awarded about 600 million dollars to Turkey because of them."[/size]
[size=45]The source went on to say that Turkey's counterclaims will have more weight when US-denominated interest rates are calculated and added to the total amount because it goes back to the 1990s when interest rates were higher.[/size]
[size=45]The source explained: “The Iraqi claims, which only go back to 2014-2018, will not have the same surplus interest rates, and in the end they will only get a few hundred million dollars.”[/size]
[size=45]"It's an empty victory," the source said. Even the court acknowledges in its ruling that neither party can be considered successful.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted a Turkish source familiar with the oil agreement between the regional government and Turkey in the year 2013, as saying that no money will come out of Ankara’s pocket because the deal includes a clause related to compensation, explaining that whatever will be paid will be from the Kurdistan Regional Government, and therefore from the Iraqi side. .[/size]
[size=45]The report considered that these developments are already raising tensions between Turkey and the regional government since the regional government finances its government services mainly through oil revenues that exceeded $5.7 billion last year.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicated that the Federal Court had ruled last year that the law regulating the oil sector in Kurdistan is unconstitutional, demanding that the Kurdish authorities hand over their crude supplies.[/size]
[size=45]However, the report found that Turkish officials expect an agreement to be reached between all concerned parties at the appropriate time and the resumption of oil exports.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted a Turkish official familiar with the previous negotiations, “We suggested that we build for them an advanced system for managing water, irrigation, dams, and others, at a cost of $5 billion, but they were unable to provide approval for that, because there are other centers of power in Iraq other than the government.”[/size]
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