Iraq's northern oil exports await report

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, June 16 -- Iraq has temporarily suspended shipments of crude oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from its northern fields around Kirkuk pending a report on the condition of the country's export pipeline system.

Iraq's North Oil Co. began the test-pumping of 250,000 b/d from Kirkuk on June 10 to check the pipeline system after months of no activity due to militant attacks.

A company spokesman said there was no immediate problem. The company is awaiting further reports before it resumes pumping through the system, he said. Some 4.5 million bbl of Iraqi crude have collected at the Ceyhan terminal from intermittent shipments.

Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Iraq is targeting sustainable exports from the north of 50,000-100,000 b/d and has plans to increase that to 1 million b/d in the next 4 years.

The target is achievable, Shahristani said, if a second, 26-in. pipeline is repaired and security boosted.

Insurgent attacks have shut the northern export pipeline system for the better part of 2 years. The pipeline system carried 700,000-800,000 b/d of oil from the north prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Iraq has relied for its export revenues on supplies of Basra Light from southern fields, now estimated at 1.5 million b/d.

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].