Key Iraq-Turkey Oil Pipeline to Resume Operations Following Completion of Repairs
Iraq, a member of the OPEC oil cartel, has completed repairs on a key pipeline to Turkey and is poised to resume crude oil exports by the end of April, according to an Iraqi oil official.
The 950-kilometer pipeline, which stretches from Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to Ceyhan in Turkey, suffered extensive damage from bomb attacks in 2013 and prior years. Three companies affiliated with the Iraqi Oil Ministry collaborated on the rehabilitation project.
"The Ministry is working to complete the rehabilitation of the pipeline, which will be capable of transporting nearly 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of April," Bassim Mohammed, Undersecretary of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told the official Iraqi News Agency on Friday.
Initial operations will transport 150,000 bpd, according to Mohammed.
Inaugurated in 1977 with the capacity to transport 600,000 bpd, the pipeline has a designed was previously taken offline due to sabotage attacks that destroyed several pumping stations, according to former Iraqi cabinet adviser Hamza Jawahri.
"The pipeline has been knocked out of service due to sabotage attacks, which destroyed three of five pumping stations," Jawahri told the Iraqi News Agency.
"The facility has been rehabilitated, and trial operations are underway."