Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq Plan to Fix Oil Pipeline to Turkey Bypasses, Isolates Kurds

Oct 11, 2017 | Khalid Al Ansary and Mohammed Sergie, Bloomberg
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Iraq’s oil minister ordered urgent repairs to a disused pipeline from northern fields to a Turkish port, a step that could eliminate the central government’s need to export crude via Iraq’s Kurdish region and further isolate the independence-seeking Kurds. Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi directed the North Oil Co. and State Co. for Oil Projects to complete repairs on the pipeline from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, the ministry said in an emailed statement. The link, once an artery for crude exports from Iraq’s oldest producing fields, hasn’t operated for years due to sabotage in areas occupied until recently by Islamic State militants.