"The Turkish petroleum company has various facilities and possibilities that could be put to use literally overnight" to help explore oil and gas, Abdullah Gul said this week during a U.S. visit.

In a question-and-answer session following a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Gul was asked if Turkey will allow oil produced in Iraq's Kurdistan region to be exported to and through his country.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has begun developing the oil sector of its northern Iraq area unilaterally, claiming the central government is moving too slow and blocking a new oil law. Baghdad says the KRG deals are illegal.

Turkey, wary of a powerful Kurdish region, has said in the past that no oil produced from the KRG deals will be allowed into Turkey. A northern Iraq pipeline currently sends crude to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, but nothing produced from the KRG deals has made it to that market.

Gul's answer evaded the specific question, though he reiterated his support for Baghdad.

"On the one hand the rehabilitation of the current resources as well as the current facilities is important while it is also a very important priority for Iraq to have new wells for oil and gas to bring out new sources," he said. "We also know that at the center of the conflict's discussions in Iraq lie oil and gas."

"Our recommendation to the Iraqis," he added, "is the passing of this law as soon as possible and when that is done, work I'm sure will be carried out not just of the existing resources but also for new oil and gas resources, and at that stage, Turkey, with all of the possibilities that she has, will do whatever she can to ensure that she's there to help not just in the north but also in the south and all across the country."

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven reserves -- the third largest in the world -- located mostly in Iraq's south. The country is both vastly underexplored, with experts predicting perhaps twice as much to be found, and in need of rehabilitation of the current infrastructure.

The debate over the oil law includes how much control the central government should have over the oil sector strategy. The KRG favors a more decentralized policy.

There's also debate as to how much exploration -- searching for more oil -- should be conducted and how much effort should be put behind enhancing the currently producing and already discovered fields.

The KRG deals are all exploration.

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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor

(e-mail: blando@upi.com)