Iraq expels Turkish energy company in sign of escalating tensions

The state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has been expelled from an oil exploration deal in Iraq's oil-rich Basra region as the tensions between the two countries have started to take its toll on blossoming commercial ties, Trend cites Today`s Zaman as saying.

"The cabinet decided to exclude the company TPAO from Block 9," Abdul Mehdi al-Amidi, head of the Oil Ministry's contracting and licensing department, said, according to AFP news agency.

The report quoted him as saying that the exploration contract included provisions allowing companies' shares to be sold on to others, and raised the possibility that "Kuwait Energy will get the Turkish share, and the new consortium could be 70 percent from Kuwait, and 30 percent from Dragon Oil."

Together with Kuwait Energy and the UAE's Dragon Oil, TPAO won the rights to explore a 900-square-kilometer (350-square-mile) area in the oil-rich Basra province this May. The consortium would be paid $6.24 for each barrel of oil equivalent it finds. The tender yielded the fifth contract for the Turkish company in Iraq.

The report noted that Amidi did not explain why TPAO was expelled.