Iraq asks Kurdistan to link the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline to its network

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs has recently announced that Iraq’s central government has asked the autonomous Kurdish region to connect its new oil pipeline with one from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey. This will allow Baghdad to measure crude oil flows.

Kirkuk–Ceyhan Oil Pipeline

Norwegian oil company DNO International announced that the new 300 000 bpd oil pipeline to Turkey will be completed in the next few weeks, increasing the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) control over its resources in a dispute with Baghdad. The Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline has suffered frequent disruption due to technical problems and insurgent attacks

According to the region’s Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami, with the construction of new pumping stations, the new pipeline would be able to export more than 1 million bpd by the end of 2015 and 2 million bpd by 2019.

Dispute over oil payments

The Iraqi politician Hussain al-Shahristani said, “We have asked the KRG to connect it to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline before the pumping station so that we can meter exactly how much crude has been pumped." He added that Baghdad was yet to receive a response.

Oil is at the heart of a dispute between the Iraqi government and the ethnic Kurdish-run northern enclave over control of oilfields, territory and crude revenues.

As a result of recent disputes, exports from the main Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline remain blocked. Iraq and Kurdistan have so far failed to reach an agreement on payments owed by the federal government to oil companies working in the region, with talks at a standstill.

On the Gulf Intelligence Energy Markets Forum in Dubai, Shahristani said “there has been no discussion with the companies or with the KRG on oil payments.”

The KRG recently rejected Baghdad’s claims that production sharing and exploration pacts signed with foreign oil companies are illegal, which last week inspired the provincial council of Nineveh to give its governor the power to sign similar deals with foreign oil firms.

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

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