Iraq resumed exporting oil from the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region through Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Saturday, after more than two years, officials said.

The exports stopped in early 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce sided with Iraq in an arbitration case over the independent export of oil by the Kurdish regional government.

Several previous attempts to reach a deal to resume exports fell through.

Amer Khalil Ahmed, Director General of the North Oil Company (NOC), took part in the resumption ceremony in Fishkhabour, Dohuk, on Saturday.

The resumption of exports is seen as a critical step to boosting Iraq’s oil revenues and stabilizing the relationship between the central government and the Kurdish region, even as disputes over revenue sharing and field management persist.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Saturday that oil flows from Iraq to Turkey resumed earlier in the day.

“Due to the earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023, the Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline, which had been temporarily closed and was brought to operational readiness by BOTAS on October 4, 2023, has resumed oil flow as of 07:07 this morning,” he wrote on social media.

BOTAS is Turkey’s state-owned crude oil and natural gas company.

Ali Nizar al-Shatari, director of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), told The Associated Press Friday that pumping would begin at 6 a.m. Saturday, with the agreed quantity set at 240,000 barrels per day.

Between 180,000 and 190,000 barrels will actually be exported, while around 50,000 barrels will be consumed locally within the Kurdish Region.

The resumption follows a tripartite agreement between the federal Oil Ministry, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Natural Resources, and the international oil companies operating in the region.

Companies operating in the Kurdistan Region will receive $16 per barrel to cover production and transportation costs, he said.

Al-Shatari said the U.S. supported and closely monitored the agreement.

He also said that Iraq’s export agreement with Turkey runs until July 2026, and discussions will be held with Ankara regarding its renewal.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the deal in a statement, saying that the agreement “will bring tangible benefits for both Americans and Iraqis.”

Officials in Baghdad and Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over sharing of oil revenues.

In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil through an independent pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The central government considers it illegal for Irbil to export oil without going through the Iraqi national oil company, while Kurdish authorities said the practice was meant to compensate for budget transfers withheld from the Kurdish region by Baghdad.