2024-04-08T09:40:21+00:00
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/ The Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced, on Monday, its intention to operate a pipeline extending from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which will compete with the Kurdistan Ceyhan pipeline, which has been suspended for more than a year, in a move that may anger Kurdish officials and companies operating there.
Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Bassem Muhammad told Reuters, “Baghdad is working to repair a pipeline that will allow it to pump 350,000 barrels per day of oil to Turkey by the end of this month.”
Restarting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been closed for a decade, would provide a competing route for a pipeline from the Kurdistan Region that has been stalled for a year amid faltering talks between Baghdad and the regional government regarding resuming exports.
Muhammad added, “The pipeline is likely to be ready to operate flows by the end of this month, and repair work is underway and a main pumping station for crude with storage facilities has been completed.”
He stressed, “Repairing the damaged parts inside Iraq and completing one basic pumping station will be the first stage of operations to restore the pipeline to its full capacity.”
For its part, three sources from the Baghdad-run North Oil Company said, “The test pumping of crude oil began early last week to verify the parts of the pipeline that operate within Iraqi territory.”
The sources added, to Reuters, that “Iraqi technical crews, during the recent period, accelerated the repair operations of the damaged parts that extend from Kirkuk through the provinces of Salah al-Din and Nineveh to the border area with Turkey.”
Based on the above, Reuters noted that the federal government in Baghdad will ask the oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region to negotiate with them to sell their oil through the revived pipeline to Turkey, which is something that may anger the Kurds, who depend almost entirely on Oil revenues.
In addition, two Iraqi oil officials and a government energy advisor, who spoke to Reuters, on condition of anonymity, said, “Baghdad rejected a Kurdish request that the federal government pay a transit fee of $6 per barrel to the Russian oil company Rosneft, which partially owns the pipeline.
Reuters also quoted the energy advisor in the Kurdistan Region, Bahjat Ahmed, as saying: “Iraqi Oil Ministry officials told the Kurdish negotiating team that they consider the agreement between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Rosneft illegal and a violation of applicable Iraqi laws.”