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APIKUR represents 60% of Kurdish production

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APIKUR says no formal outreach or agreement on payment

surety

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U.S. piling pressure on Iraq to resume exports

(Changes headline, recasts after APIKUR statement)

By Maha El Dahan and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Eight international oil firms

operating in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said they

would not resume oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan on Friday

despite an announcement from Baghdad that the restart was

imminent.

The United States has been pushing Baghdad to allow Kurdish

oil exports via Turkey, a move that could boost supply to the

global market at a time when Washington wants to reduce Iranian

oil exports as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign.

Baghdad, a partner to both Washington and Tehran, is wary of

being caught in the crosshairs of Trump's policy to squeeze

Iran. Iran views its neighbour and ally Iraq as vital for

keeping its economy afloat amidst sanctions.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said last week the

pipeline would resume exports soon.

The government said on Friday it would announce a resumption

in the coming hours, with an initial amount of 185,000 barrels

per day (bpd) exported through state oil marketer SOMO and that

quantity gradually increasing.

The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan

(APIKUR), which represents 60% of production from the region,

said later no formal outreach had been made for clarity on

commercial agreements and guarantees of payment for past and

future exports.

"To be clear, APIKUR member companies will not resume oil

exports today," said the statement by Myles Caggins,

spokesperson for APIKUR, whose members include Gulf Keystone

Petroleum ( GUKYF ), DNO, Genel Energy ( GEGYF ) and ShaMaran Petroleum ( SHASF ).

The government did not immediately respond to an emailed

request for comment sent outside office hours.

Oil flows through the Ceyhan pipeline were halted by Turkey

in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in damages for

unauthorised exports between 2014 and 2018.

Iraqi Kurdistan authorities had agreed with the federal oil

ministry to restart Kurdish crude exports based on available

volumes, Kurdistan's regional government said on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is piling

pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face

sanctions alongside Iran, sources have told Reuters. An Iraqi

official later denied pressure or the threat of sanctions.

Reuters also reported on Thursday the Iraqi government had

made a fresh attempt to deem all Kurdish production-sharing oil

contracts illegal by filing new papers to a court in Baghdad, a

move that casts doubt on where the exported crude would come

from.