Business | Oil & Gas
Iraq plans new crude pipeline from Kirkuk
Iraq's oil minister said yesterday Baghdad was considering a new crude oil pipeline for exports from the northern Kirkuk field through Turkey to secure flows often disrupted by sabotage.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 September 11, 2006
Abu Dhabi: Iraq's oil minister said yesterday Baghdad was considering a new crude oil pipeline for exports from the northern Kirkuk field through Turkey to secure flows often disrupted by sabotage.
"We are looking into building a ... pipeline from Kirkuk that does not pass through the area of other lines which are the target of sabotage," Hussain Al Shahristani said in Abu Dhabi.
"This line is on the drawing board," he said adding that the plan would be on the drawing board for "more than a year".
Shahristani said in an interview another pipeline is under construction and would be "finished in less than a month. It has a capacity of 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is enough for all of the output of Kirkuk for export".
The pipeline under construction will link Kirkuk to the Baiji oil hub and pipeline intersection before it flows into a line to the Ceyhan port in Turkey.
Shahristani said Iraq will not be able to set a routine for the oil sales from Kirkuk until it secures the current pipeline. The line has been mostly paralysed by insurgent attacks since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
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