Iraq needs several months to resume exports from north

Baghdad: Iraq needs a further eight to 12 months before it can resume oil exports from its sabotage-stricken northern oilfields via Turkey, Oil Minister Hashem Al Hashemi said yesterday.

"The manifold pipeline was totally destroyed and it is not working at all. So there is no way to export oil from the north," he told Reuters in his first interview to international media.

"It will take months before we fix it ... the exports will stay on hold from the north for months. Some say eight months others say 12, it depends how fast the work goes and also on the security situation," he added.

The manifold gathers oil from feeder pipelines to pump it into the export line.

Exports via a pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal on Turkey's Mediterranean coast resumed only for a few days in January. Exports had already been halted for weeks by a major attack in October.

"There is no way to export oil from there not before we fix the centre. It will take time," Hashemi said.

Hashemi said that exports for March via the Gulf were expected to hit 1.5 million barrels per day. He said production was stable in a range between 1.9 million and 2.1 million bpd.

Iraq's oil sector, crippled by decades of war, sanctions and underinvestment, has lurched from one crisis to another since the US invasion in 2003.

Exports dropped to their lowest level since 2003 at 1.1 million bpd in December and January due to sabotage in the north and bad weather in the south combined with logistics problems.

Widespread violence and sabotage have left Iraq critically short of fuel, forcing it to import nearly half of its gasoline.

Iraqi officials had said Iraq is losing out on millions of dollars to smugglers who are shipping oil and fuel to Iran and other Gulf states as some government officials turn a blind eye.

A US diplomat said yesterday that Iraqi authorities are conducting an extensive investigation into suspected corruption at the Baiji oil refinery, the country's largest.

Hashemi, who denied any smuggling from the south, said there may have been smuggling from the north where security and government control is weak.