Exports of oil from Kurdistan resume through Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region’s exportation of oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline resumed on Tuesday evening after a halt due to scheduled maintenance on Monday.
He also said it is expected exports will this evening reach their normal rate which is 600,000 barrels of oil.
The Turkish Botas company has quickly repaired the pipeline inside Turkey, he added.
Dilshad Shaaban, the deputy head of natural resources committee in Kurdistan’s parliament, told Rudaw, exports of Kurdish oil resumed at 9 p.m. on to the Ceyhan port in Turkey.
He also said it is expected exports will this evening reach their normal rate which is 600,000 barrels of oil.
The Turkish Botas company has quickly repaired the pipeline inside Turkey, he added.
A source from the Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) told Rudaw that the routine maintenance was planned three months ago, and originally was due in March, but the MNR and the state-owned Turkish company, Botas, that operates the Ceyhan pipeline agreed to “delay” the maintenance to April 10 (Monday).
An engineer at the state-run Iraqi North Oil Company told Rudaw on Monday that the damage to the Kurdistan Region amounts to $23 million per day.
The Kurdistan Region began exporting oil to Ceyhan in May of 2014 after Baghdad, under then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, froze payments to Erbil from the national budget as pressure and punishment for trying to go ahead with the oil sales.