AT AROUND 20.00 GMT yesterday (13 August) Turkey received the first exports of crude oil via the newly-opened Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Now fully operational, the line’s initial capacity will be 2000,000brl/d.
The pipeline (see our item on 12 August) runs from Iraq’s northern oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. It will increase Iraq’s oil exports to at least 850,000brl/d, Turkish sources said. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline was due to start pumping in early August. The US Army earlier said that oil flow would resume on 13 August, and Turkish officials said pumping began at 15.30 GMT, around an hour later than originally scheduled. “We have completed our preparations to receive oil at our end”, one pipeline official told PipeWire yesterday morning. “Pumping may start any hour.”
The Kirkuk field is the biggest in northern Iraq, containing an estimated 7Bbrl of recoverable crude. Before the war, its production ranged from 500,000-900,000brl/d. Turkish officials currently expect shipments to remain well below pre-war levels for several months. In early June two explosions damaged the pipeline, and another minor explosion hit the pipeline yesterday before pumping began. The 965-km pipeline has not been operational since the explosions. While the June sabotage at the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had been repaired, inadequate communications with Turkey and the looting of control mechanisms have delayed a resumption of pumping.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry officials have expressed concern over plans to re-operate the oil pipeline that used to link the Iraqi oil city of Mosul to the Mediterranean port of Haifa, Israel. A senior diplomat said the project, promoted by Israel, would weaken the Turkish economy in loss transit fee from the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. “More importantly, the project may weaken Turkey’s strategic importance in regional energy network as it may undermine the need for Kirkuk-Ceyhan,” he said. The same official said, however, that the Mosul-Haifa pipeline project would require billions of dollars worth of investment. “Apparently Israel intends to obtain cheap energy and benefit from transport and cargo fees in addition to creating new contract opportunities for its companies,” he said.