KRG oil export pipeline near completion

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami, told a meeting at the UK’s Conservative Party conference that a pipeline to export oil from the Kurdistan Region will be operational within a few months.

Earlier this week, Hawrami announced ‘the new oil export pipeline from the Kurdistan region is almost complete and is expected to be operational by the end of the year…we are helping the security and continuity of energy supply to the world’. Exports are expected to reach 1 million bpd by 2015, and 2 million bpd by 2019.

Economic independence of Kurdistan

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region is moving ever closer to declaring independence, thanks largely to its oil reserves of 45 billion barrels and increasingly close energy links with neighbouring Turkey. The 300 000 bpd pipeline to Turkey will increase the KRG’s control over its resources in a dispute with Baghdad.

Hawrami promoted the KRG oil export pipeline, saying ‘sharing all oil revenues according to the federal constitution, and the economic independence of Kurdistan, are the recipe for the unity of Iraq.’

In addition, he told the audience at the Conservative Party conference that Kurdistan’s energy riches had been ignored, or used against the Kurdish people under previous Iraqi governments. ‘With the liberation of Iraq, a new era, an opportunity for sharing power and wealth, opened up in Iraq. The Iraqi constitution facilitates that but so far it has not been implemented.’

The Minister noted that the KRG sees Turkey not just as a conduit for Kurdistan’s oil and gas to Western markets, but also as a consumer and partner. He also encouraged British companies to continue to look at Kurdistan as a destination for their investment. ‘We have a good relationship with Britain and there are lots of opportunities for British companies. It’s a win-win situation.’

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/04102013/krg_oil_export_pipeline_near-_completion/