Iraq's oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani arrived in Ankara to discuss several issues including the resumption of oil exports through the Ceyhan oil terminal via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a source in the minister's office told Reuters on Monday.

The pipeline, critical to the solvency of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, ceased operations on 25 March, after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Iraq's federal government successfully argued its state-owned marketed SOMO is the only party authorized to manage crude exports through Ceyhan.

Reuters has estimated that the Iraqi Kurdish region has lost more than $2 billion during the past five months of inactivity.

Turkey wants to negotiate regarding the size of damages it was ordered to pay in the arbitration ruling before tthe Kirkuk - Ceyhan Pipeline resumes operations.  It also seeks clarification on other open arbitration cases.

One oil official said that “a decision to restart oil flow needs (these kinds of) political talks. Issues blocking the resumption of oil exports are more political than technical.”