IRAQ: Autonomous Kurdistan region expects to start exporting its crude oil production along a new pipeline to the Turkish border by August 2013

Record ID: 344203

  • Title: IRAQ: Autonomous Kurdistan region expects to start exporting its crude oil production along a new pipeline to the Turkish border by August 2013
  • Date: 21st May 2012
  • Summary: ARBIL, IRAQ (MAY 20, 2012) (REUTERS) KURDISH REGION NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER ASHTI HAWRAMI TAKING FLOOR TO GIVE SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (English) KURDISH REGION NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER ASHTI HAWRAMI, SAYING: "We have a lot of spare capacity at the border, something like 1.2 million barrels a day. We want to capture them from the new discoveries in the Kurdistan region by connecting a one million barrel pipeline to be built within the next couple of month to connect the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and from there to Ceyhan for export." MAP OF KURDISH OIL FIELDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) KURDISH REGION NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER ASHTI HAWRAMI, SAYING: "Simultaneously, with that we envisage the building of a new pipeline taking Kurdistan's oil particularly perhaps the heavier component part to Ceyhan. There shall be a large refinery and some of that oil will go there and the additional oil will go to the international market. When we say oil from Kurdistan is Iraqi oil. There is no difference between Iraqi oil in Basra or Iraqi oil in Kurdistan." WIDE OF CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) KURDISH REGION NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER ASHTI HAWRAMI, SAYING: "We have north at the border Taw Ka and coming down further we have Kurmalla, Taq Taq and we have major other discoveries. And really are shown here only modest figures of some of the recently discovered reservoirs and fields. Initially down the line the production from these fields will increase and we have explorations and 25-30 rates are in action and exploring the other new areas. So we easily envisage arrive at two million barrels a day by 2019." HAWRAMI STEPPING DOWN
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA7KVSZCEL0HHH8Y0J44GR75QHM
  • Story Text: Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said on Sunday (May 20) it expects to start exporting its crude oil production along a new pipeline to the Turkish border by August 2013, defying Baghdad in a long-running dispute over who should control the country's oil exports.
    The Kurdistan region, which has its own government and armed forces, has already clashed with Iraq's central government and halted its oil exports in April after accusing Baghdad of not remitting payments due.
    "We have a lot of spare capacity at the border, something like 1.2 million barrels a day. We want to capture them from the new discoveries in the Kurdistan region by connecting a one million barrel pipeline to be built within the next couple of month to connect the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and from there to Ceyhan for export," the Kurdish regional natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami said at an oil conference in Kurdistan on Sunday.
    He said the region would be able to export directly in August 2013.
    "Simultaneously, with that we envisage the building of a new pipeline taking Kurdistan's oil particularly perhaps the heavier component part to Ceyhan. There shall be a large refinery and some of that oil will go there and the additional oil will go to the international market. When we say oil from Kurdistan is Iraqi oil. There is no difference between Iraqi oil in Basra or Iraqi oil in Kurdistan," Hawrami added.
    Baghdad says only the central government's oil authorities have the right to control oil exports, and dismisses contracts signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government as illegal, while the KRG says it has the right to develop its own oil fields.
    Hawrami said once direct exports begin Kurdistan would take the 17 percent of revenues the region is allowed from Iraq's national budget and pass the rest to the federal government.
    The minister said the first stage of the pipeline would be completed by October this year to carry crude from the Taq Taq oil-field. The second phase would connect to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline with a capacity of 1 million barrels per day by August next year.
    He said Kurdistan was also developing plans to build a separate pipeline that could connect to a refinery in Turkey's Ceyhan port by 2014.
    The oil dispute between Baghdad and Kurdish capital Arbil is part of a broader political crisis in Iraq, where a fragile government among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs is struggling to overcome deep splits over power-sharing.
    Last month Kurdistan halted crude exports because it said Baghdad was not fulfilling agreements to pay foreign oil companies working in the region, worsening the conflict between the ethnic Kurdish and mainly Iraqi Arab central government over regional autonomy, disputed territories and oil rights.
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