Iraq says Kirkuk oil swap deal with Iran for one year – ‘Subject to renewal’

This news has been read 6018 times!

KUWAIT, Dec 10, (RTRS): Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Sunday that a deal signed with Tehran to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil is for one year and subject to renewal.

The agreement signed on Friday by the two OPEC countries provides for Iran to deliver to Iraq’s southern ports, on the Gulf, “oil of the same characteristics and in the same quantities” as those it would receive from Kirkuk.

“This is an agreement for one year and then we will see after that whether to renew it,” Luaibi told reporters in Kuwait City on the sidelines of an Arab oil ministerial meeting.

The deal in effect allows Iraq to resume sales of Kirkuk crude, which have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields from the Kurds in October.

Between 30,000 and 60,000 bpd of Kirkuk crude will be delivered by tanker trucks to the border area of Kermanshah, where Iran has a refinery.

Luaibi also said that the construction of an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan will take one year to build.

It will replace an old, badly damaged section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. It will start from the nearby city of Baiji and run to the Fish-Khabur border area with Turkey.

The territory that the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline ran through was taken by Islamic State militants in 2014 and then recaptured by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces over the past two years.

The minister said he plans to visit Kirkuk oilfield on Thursday with a senior executive from BP to “activate” an agreement signed with the British oil company to help Baghdad halt a huge decline in output from Kirkuk and increase production to higher levels.

“We have a memorandum of understanding with BP to evaluate Kirkuk oilfield to raise output and enhance it reservoirs,” Luaibi said.

Iraq has asked BP to help increase output from Kirkuk oilfield to more than 700,000 barrels per day.

Kirkuk is one of the biggest and oldest oilfields in the Middle East, still estimated to contain around 9 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to BP.

BP has provided technical assistance in the past to the Iraqi state-owned North Oil Company to aid the redevelopment of the Kirkuk field.

Iraq has agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Saturday.

The agreement signed by the two countries provides for Iran to deliver to Iraq’s southern ports, on the Gulf, “oil of the same characteristics and in the same quantities” as those it would receive from Kirkuk, Luaibi said in a statement.

The deal in effect allows Iraq to resume sales of Kirkuk crude, which have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields from the Kurds in October.

Between 30,000 and 60,000 bpd of Kirkuk crude will be delivered by tanker trucks to the border area of Kermanshah, where Iran has a refinery, Luaibi said.

The two countries are planning to build a pipeline to carry the oil from Kirkuk, so as to avoid trucking the crude, he said.

The pipeline could replace the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean by pipeline.

Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic state, preventing the region’s oilfields from falling into the hands of the militants.

 

This news has been read 6018 times!

Related Articles

Back to top button

Advt Blocker Detected

Kindly disable the Ad blocker

Verified by MonsterInsights