(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s oil minister said he’s hoping crude oil exports from the country’s northern Kurdistan region will restart in two days after a halt of almost two years following a payments dispute.

OPEC’s second-biggest producer is in touch with Turkey to discuss technical issues before it can resume shipments through the pipeline that runs to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean sea, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani said at a conference in Baghdad on Monday.

“As soon as Turkish approval arrives, the exports will be resumed,” he said. “We hope in the next two days.”

The resumption of oil exports has been in focus over the past month after Iraq’s parliament approved higher payments to companies operating in the Kurdistan region. Deputy Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said over the weekend that about 185,000 barrels a day of crude would be shipped through the pipeline.

While that’s less than half of what the link was transporting before it stopped in March 2023, it may add to concerns in a global market contending with the prospect of a surplus. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers forming the OPEC+ alliance are under increasing focus after US President Donald Trump in January called on the group “to cut the price of oil.”

However, Iraq reiterated on Monday that the restart will not affect its commitment to OPEC+ quotas for volumes exported under its control, according to an Iraqi oil ministry statement, citing a joint phone call with the energy ministers of fellow OPEC+ members Saudi Arabia and Russia as well as OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais.

Iraq will “continue its efforts to compensate for the accumulated surplus, taking into account the recent expected developments regarding the federal government receiving oil produced in the Kurdistan Region and resuming exports through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline while adhering to Iraq’s share stipulated in the OPEC voluntary reduction agreements and the required compensation quantities,” according to the statement.

Also read: Iraq Says It’s Ready to Restart Oil Via Turkish Pipeline

(Updates with Iraq statement on OPEC commitment from sixth paragraph.)