ANKARA, Turkey - Iraq has sent 47 million barrels of oil to Turkey since January 1, a sum worth an estimated $3 billion, Turkey's top energy official has said.

Taner Yildiz, the Turkish minister of oil, added that 57 tankers carrying Iraqi oil have left Ceyhan port for the world market. Most of the oil arrived in Turkey via a network of pipelines, according to Reuters news agency.

The latest Erbil-Baghdad oil agreement requires the Kurdistan Regional Government to export 550 million barrels per day (bdp) from Kirkuk and oilfields in the Kurdistan region oilfields to Ceyhan. When the oil arrives at the port in Turkey it is handed over to the Baghdad-based State Organization for Marketing of Oil.

"We give the Iraqi government only 425,000 bpd at the Ceyhan port," Ashti Hawrami, the KRG resources minister, told Rudaw in an exclusive interview last week.

Rudaw