BAGHDAD�Iraq and Syria plan to build a 1.4 million b/d oil pipeline to replace an old corroded one, a senior Iraqi official said last weekend.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries news agency, Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rasheed told government newspaper Al-Jumhouriya that the old pipeline was no longer economical.
The pipeline, which is at least 20 years old, has leakage and corrosion problems. Its capacity was unclear but it recently was transporting 200,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Jan. 1, 2001).
Syria plans to issue a tender soon for construction of the section within its borders, while the tender for the Iraqi section will be issued after Iraq's financial situation improved, Al-Jumhouriya said.
Iraq is under UN sanctions that block it from freely exporting oil and making oil sector investments. But since December 1996, Iraq has been allowed to sell oil to buy food and medicine.
Rasheed said another oil pipeline is planned through Jordan. The Jordanian government has issued a tender for a section extending from the Iraqi border to the 90,400-b/d refinery at Zerka.
Iraq would build another section, from Haditha 260 km northwest of Baghdad to the Syrian border. Rasheed said that section within Iraq would be postponed until its financial situation improved.
Iraq is exporting 80,000 b/d of oil to Jordan using tanker trucks.