Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 26 / Trend /
Iraqi Kurdish Autonomy rejected federal government's request regarding the connection of its new oil pipeline to the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline at a point between the existing metering station at Fishkhabor and the Turkish border, International Oil Daily (IOD) reported with the reference to Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) source.
Earlier Iraq's deputy prime minister for energy, Hussein al-Shahristani, said the federal government had asked Iraqi Kurdish Autonomy to connect its new pipe before the Fishkhabor pumping station so it could meter the crude -- and presumably also control its sale from Turkey's port of Ceyhan. According to Shahristani, Baghdad had not yet received any response.
"Practically speaking, his /deputy prime minister's/ suggestion does not guarantee the reliability of new oil flow that Iraq urgently needs. Due to the plague of technical breakdowns and interruptions and terrorist attacks on the main pipeline from the south, and also because of the lack of control on the existing metering station, it is difficult for Iraqi Kurdish Autonomy's part of the oil to be accurately metered and monitored," the source told IOD.
According to the source, instead, Iraqi Kurdish Autonomy has taken the decision to connect its new pipeline to a new international standard metering station installed after the existing metering station and before the border with Turkey.
The source added that federal officials were welcome to come and observe the metering of oil there.
IOD mentioned that the Iraqi section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been bombed repeatedly over the course of this year, regularly disrupting flows to Turkey. Exports through the pipe averaged 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, but just 180,000 bpd in July and 193,000 bpd in June, against a peak of 343,000 bpd in February.
Edited by: A.Badalova