Turkey restarts Iraqi oil exports from Mediterranean port

Turkey resumed crude-oil flows to the Mediterranean export terminal of Ceyhan late on Tuesday following two devastating earthquakes, according to an official with knowledge of the matter.

State pipeline operator Botas halted flows of Iraqi and Azeri oil through pipelines on Monday to make safety checks. The quakes killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria and damaged infrastructure and housing.

Oil loadings onto ships also started around midnight, the official said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

One of three bays for Iraq’s oil is open, according to SOMO, the Iraqi state crude-marketing firm. The other two are still being inspected, Mohammed Saadoon, a SOMO official, said to Bloomberg.

The quay that’s open is loading oil from the Kurdish region onto a tanker, while a ship for the federal government is waiting to come in after, he said.

Exports from the part of the port that handles flows from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline are yet to resume, according to a BP spokeswoman in Baku, Azerbaijan. The BTC pipeline mainly takes Azeri crude.

It’s unclear if parts of the port were damaged by the quakes.

Ceyhan exported over 1 million barrels a day in January, or 1% of global supplies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Iraq’s full-month exports from the port won’t be affected, according to another official with knowledge of the matter. Baghdad sends 75,000 barrels a day to Ceyhan, while the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government sends about 400,000 barrels a day.