Oil pipeline to Turkey to start soon

[Houston1099]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/iraq-oil-idUSL5N0EV1BQ20130619?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologySector&rpc=43

 

UPDATE 1-Iraqi Kurds say new oil pipeline to Turkey to start soon

 

 

 

 

 

Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:53am EDT

* Pipeline capacity to increase to 1 mln bpd by 2015-Hawrami

* Sales via federal pipeline depend on permanent solution

* Natural gas exports to Turkey seen by 2016

By Julia Payne and Peg Mackey

 

LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan will start a new oil pipeline toTurkey within months, its energy minister said, increasing the autonomous region's control over its resources in a dispute with Baghdad and raising its exports to world markets.

In a move that will provoke Baghdad, the Kurdish regional government will complete the pipeline by the end of September with an initial capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), its energy minister, Ashti Hawrami, told a conference in London on Wednesday.

Oil is at the heart of the dispute between the Arab-led central government and the ethnic Kurdish-run northern enclave over control of oilfields, territory and crude revenues shared between the two regions.

Kurdistan has stopped exporting through the central government-controlled pipeline, which has stranded its oil output. It has been able to truck only small amounts to Turkey on road tankers.

"Nowhere in the world does 1 million barrels per day remain stranded, so I'm confident that Kurdistan's exports via pipeline will be a reality very soon," Hawrami said.

Kurdistan's oil production capacity is now at 300,000 bpd and is rising rapidly to 400,000 bpd by the end of this year, most of it destined for export, he added.

Sales of Kurdish oil via the central government through Iraq's federal pipeline system also could resume but that will depend on a permanent resolution of the political and constitutional issues between Arbil and Baghdad, Hawrami said.

No agreement has been reached so far between Iraq and Kurdistan on payments to oil companies working in the region, despite a meeting earlier in June between leaders on both sides.

Hawrami stressed the benefits of having a direct pipeline.

"The new export infrastructure will be a cost-effective and secure solution that will enable more of Iraq's oil and gas to reach the international market, which will allow all the citizens of Iraq to benefit from increased revenue," he said.

With the further construction of new pumping stations, the pipeline would be able to export more than 1 million bpd by the end of 2015 and 2 million bpd by 2019, Hawrami said.

Genel Energy said in February it expected to export oil by pipeline from its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan by 2014. Turkish sources said in April that the KRG was on track to finish the pipeline in the third quarter.

Turkey has given the green light to the plan, under which Kurdish oil will enter the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at the Fishkhabur pumping station near the Turkish border, from where it will flow directly to Turkey's southern port of Ceyhan for shipping to international markets, the sources said.

The prime ministers of Iraq and the KRG met last week in Arbil, the Kurdish capital, and agreed to set up committees to focus on Iraq's oil and gas law and revenue-sharing legislation, but made little progress on substantive issues.

"There was no discussion about oil payments ... Our dispute is constitutional, we are looking at the big picture," Hawrami said.

The KRG will also seek to export natural gas to Turkey and elsewhere in Europe once domestic needs are met, Hawrami said.

"By 2016, I believe, we will have first exports of gas for the Turkish grid," he said.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Houston1099

[sandfly]

THEY ARE GETTING THINGS DONE. GOOGLE PHOTO'S OF IRAQ. THEY HAVE CHANGE ALOT AFTHER I LEFT THERE.

[yota691]

Kurdistan: the export of gas to Turkey beginning of 2016 and the near completion of an oil pipeline with

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 14:34

 

 

[Follow-up - where]

 

The Ministry of wealth and natural resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government, said Wednesday that the export of natural gas from the region to Turkey via pipeline will begin in early 2016.

 

The Kurdistan appeared since last year's 2012 oil exports to Turkey by truck amid objections by the federal government.

 

The Oil Ministry confirmed in 25 of the Federal last April that the Strategic Joint Declaration between Iraq and Turkey for the export of oil stipulates that the source of hydrocarbon resources of Iraq is the Federal Ministry of Oil and oil marketing company SOMO.

 

The Minister of wealth in the provincial government Ashti Hawrami at an energy conference held in London today that "natural gas exports to the network of the Turkish province is expected to start in 2016," adding that "a new line of the oil pipeline linking the region, Turkey will be completed by the end of September next year."

 

Hawrami added that the "primary energy pipeline would be about 300 thousand barrels per day, rising eventually to one million barrels a day."

 

He pointed out that "the resumption of oil exports through the Iraqi Federal Network is subject to reaching a lasting solution between the Governments of the center and the region."

 

The energy minister said in the Kurdistan Regional Government "has not been oil payments after search with Baghdad and that our dispute unconstitutional and we look forward to the larger picture."

 

The Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has visited Arbil last Sunday and met with the President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani and an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers.

 

And al-Maliki and Barzani announced after their meeting agreed to activate the joint committees to resolve problems and outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil, including oil and gas law and legislation governing the sharing of revenue.

 

The oil minister in the federal government Abdul Karim and coffee had announced last January that "his ministry plans to sue company Genel Energy] English - Turkish and other companies for export of crude oil from Kurdistan to the outside despite the objection of the reluctance of Baghdad for violating the constitution."

 

The company expects [Giniel Energy] export of oil by pipeline from fields in Kurdistan by 2014 regardless of the political impasse between the Governments of the center and the region.

 

And spins a dispute between Arbil and Baghdad on 41 contracts, oil and signed by the provincial government since 2007 until now, you see the central government in Baghdad that any oil contract must be done with their consent, and refused Kurdistan recent draft of the oil and gas law approved by the Iraqi government and sent to the House of Representatives for approval, which strongly opposed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

 

The oil imports about 95% of Iraq's budget, but so far no country's law regulating its affairs after the failure of the House of Representatives Bdortih past and present to pass the law of oil and gas, which was expected to rise oil situation in the event of approval. Ended.

Edited June 19, 2013 by yota691