Oil has linked Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region to international companies, export routes and disputes over public revenue. Archival records, historical research and official documents explain distinct stages of that history.

Black-and-white photograph of oil spraying around a derrick above excavated ground near Kirkuk
An oil gusher in the Kirkuk district, catalogued as circa 1932; G. Eric and Edith Matson collection. This photograph illustrates the early industry, rather than the discovery well on its opening day. G. Eric and Edith Matson / Wikimedia Commons · CC0.

Kirkuk and the Mediterranean pipeline

The Turkish Petroleum Company’s agreement with Iraq in March 1925 preceded the major oil strike at Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk in October 1927. The Gulbenkian Foundation’s archival account follows the subsequent pipeline project: construction took place in 1932–34, with branches towards Tripoli and Haifa. The first oil reached Haifa in October 1934; official opening ceremonies followed in January 1935. The choice of two terminals reflected competing commercial and political interests among the consortium’s investors. [1] Transport infrastructure became a central part of the industry’s international connections.

Oil changed a multilingual city

Arbella Bet-Shlimon’s City of Black Gold examines oil, urban growth and colonial power in twentieth-century Kirkuk. Its published abstract describes Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab identities as shaped through changing urban relationships and political mobilization. Her approach places competing claims to the city within a history of institutions, economic change and interaction between communities. [2] It offers a useful historical framework for understanding why Kirkuk’s oil cannot be separated from the people and politics of the city around it.

Different histories of production

Kirkuk’s long-established industry should be distinguished from development within the Kurdistan Region. Robin Mills’s 2016 Oxford Institute for Energy Studies research notes that exploration in the territory of the present-day region remained very limited before 2004, despite earlier discoveries. [3] A later company record gives a concrete example of the new investment period: Gulf Keystone’s Shaikan production-sharing contract was awarded by the KRG in 2007. [7] These dates help distinguish the development of particular fields from the much older Kirkuk industry.

The 2022 constitutional dispute

On 15 February 2022, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled the Kurdistan Region’s 2007 oil and gas law unconstitutional. [4] The KRG rejected the ruling. Its response invoked Articles 112 and 117 of the Iraqi constitution, defended regional powers and contracts, and connected its independent export policy to the budget crisis of 2014. [5] These documents record opposing legal and political positions over who could develop resources and control their sale.

The pipeline closure and a documented restart

The US Energy Information Administration’s July 2025 analysis explains that Türkiye stopped pipeline flows in March 2023 after arbitration over exports without federal approval. It estimates KRG production fell from about 435,000 barrels a day in 2022 to nearly 240,000 in 2023 as export access narrowed. [6] Gulf Keystone subsequently recorded that exports from Shaikan restarted on 27 September 2025 under interim agreements with the regional and federal governments. [7] That company account documents a specific restart; it does not establish uninterrupted operation thereafter.

Revenue, salaries and the 2026 negotiations

On 17 March 2026, the KRG negotiating team announced agreement to move Kirkuk and Kurdistan Region oil through the regional pipeline towards Ceyhan. It described a joint technical committee, federal receipt of sale revenues and security measures, linking revenue to salaries and public services. [8] Read alongside the earlier disputes, this statement shows how field development, export access, government budgets and household livelihoods became interconnected. It records the agreement announced on that date, rather than a guarantee of subsequent export volumes.

Sources and further reading

  1. Gulbenkian Foundation, Construction of the Iraq-Mediterranean Oil Pipeline, 10 November 2023: archival history.
  2. Arbella Bet-Shlimon, City of Black Gold, Stanford University Press, 2019: abstract reproduced by Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
  3. Robin Mills, Under the Mountains: Kurdish Oil and Regional Politics, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2016, section 2.2.
  4. Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, notice concerning its 15 February 2022 ruling on the Kurdistan Region oil and gas law.
  5. KRG, Statement on Tuesday’s Ruling of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, 15 February 2022.
  6. US Energy Information Administration, Country Analysis Brief: Iraq, July 2025, p. 2.
  7. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Information Document, 17 February 2026, pp. 34, 39: Shaikan contract and export history.
  8. KRG negotiating team, Statement Regarding Oil Exports, 17 March 2026.