Iraq targets 650,000 barrels per day oil exports via Turkey

Iraq is pushing ahead with plans to repair a war-damaged pipeline in the north of the country that has the potential to transport nearly 400,000 barrels per day of crude to Turkey, according to officials.

Basim Khudair, Iraq’s deputy oil minister in Baghdad, said that the Kirkuk-Faysh Khabur pipeline, which does not pass through Kurdistan, was damaged in past hostilities but is being repaired. 

“This pipeline was previously subjected to sabotage and has not yet reached its basic export capacity. It is currently undergoing rehabilitation and testing,” Khudair told the state news agency INA.

The pipeline is under the control of the oil ministry in Baghdad and has a capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day, Khudair said.

As a result, Iraq hopes to export nearly 650,000 bpd of crude through Turkey after it was forced to halt exports through the blocked Strait of Hormuz.

The state-owned North Oil Company said this month that it has resumed crude export of 250,000 bpd via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline following an agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). 

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A second pipeline is under KRG control, has a design capacity of 900,000 barrels per day and connects the Taq Taq and Tawke oilfields to the main Ceyhan pipeline.

Iraq, Opec’s second largest oil producer, was exporting nearly 3.4 million bpd through Hormuz before the regional conflict erupted on February 28.

Earlier this month, oil minister Hayan Abdul Ghani said his ministry had issued tenders to export crude by truck through the Mediterranean port of Baniyas in western Syria and the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba.