 Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said today that disruptions in Iraqi refinery operations caused by fighting there will boost Iraq’s demand for refined oil products from Turkey.
Tüpra?, which is Turkey’s only oil refiner, operates four refineries with a total capacity to handle an annual 28.1million tons of crude oil.
The partly-state-owned company operates four oil refineries, three of which process imported crude. The four main refining complexes: Batman in the southeast, Aliaga near Izmir, Izmit near Istanbul and the Central Anatolian Refinery at Kirikkale near Ankara
Yildiz however noted that high demand from Iraq would cause a build-up of activity at its Habur border gate to northern Iraq which could create a bottle-neck.
Habur Border gate, through which 1.6 million vehicles pass every year, is not able to meet demands for trade between Iraq and Turkey, which now has a trade volume of about $12 billion annually.
In 2013 Turkey and Iraq reached an agreement to open two new border gates following talks with Iraq’s central government and autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
A third bridge will also be constructed in Habur, which is the current border gate between Turkey and Iraq. New border gates are expected to make a considerable contribution to the trade between Turkey and Iraq.
