ShaMaran Petroleum Corp (SHASF)

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Turkey to compensate Iraq for stolen Kurdish oil in a scheme that enriched Erdogan’s family

https://nordicmonitor.com/2024/02/turkey-to-compensate-iraq-for-stolen-kurdish-oil-in-a-scheme-that-enriched-erdogans-family/



Turkish taxpayers are facing a substantial financial burden, with a staggering $1.5 billion in compensation coupled with over half a billion dollars in interest owed to the Iraqi federal government. This penalty stems from illicit oil operations, which entailed the transportation and sale of oil from Iraq’s Kurdistan region that was mainly conducted by a company owned by the family of the Turkish president.

On April 10, 2023 Iraq petitioned the US District Court for the District of Columbia to enforce a ruling requiring Turkey to compensate Iraq in the amount of $1.47 billion, stemming from Turkey’s violation of a pipeline agreement in which it was involved in the facilitation of crude-oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region, despite Baghdad’s repeated objections.

Baghdad’s decision to file a lawsuit in the US District Court followed Ankara’s refusal to pay the compensation imposed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on February 13, 2023.

The penalty arising from the ICC and US federal court decisions is linked to illegal oil transactions orchestrated by Powertrans Petrol ve Enerji Tic. A.S (Powertrans), a company run by Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Despite objections from the Iraqi federal government, the Erdogan administration facilitated the transportation and sale of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). This was initially accomplished on land by oil tanker and subsequently via pipelines connecting Iraq’s Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.