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REFILE-Iraq set to resume own pipeline as Kurdish talks stall

Baghdad is repairing a pipeline that could enable it to send out 350,000 barrels per day ( bpd) to Turkey by the end of the month, an Iraqi deputy oil minister said on Monday, a step most likely to rile oil foreign business and the Kurdistan Regional Federal Government (KRG).

The reopening of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has actually been shut for a decade, would provide a competing path to a pipeline from the Kurdistan region that has been shut for a year as talks in between Baghdad and the KRG on resuming exports have actually stalled.

Baghdad considers production-sharing arrangements between the Kurds and foreign companies utilizing the KRG's pipeline unlawful.

The federal government in Baghdad will need oil companies to negotiate with it to offer their oil through the revived pipeline to Turkey, potentially outraging the Kurds who depend on nearly totally on oil profits.

Exports via the 960 km (600 mile) pipeline were halted in 2014 after repeated attacks by Islamic State militants. It once managed about 0.5% of global supply.

Repairs are ongoing and a significant crude pumping station with storage centers has been completed. The pipeline is likely to be operational and prepared to reboot flows by the end of this month, Basim Mohammed, Iraqi deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, informed .

Fixing damaged sections inside Iraq and finishing one vital pumping station will be the first phase of operations to bring the pipeline back to complete capability, he said.

The KRG's pipeline was halted on March 25, 2023, after an arbitration court ruled it violated provisions of a 1973 treaty by assisting in oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdish area without Baghdad's approval.

Negotiations to reboot it have failed as Turkey, the KRG and the federal government have made conflicting needs.

2 Iraqi oil officials and a government energy advisor, speaking on condition of privacy, stated Baghdad had actually balked at a. Kurdish demand that the federal government pay a $6 per barrel. transit cost to Russian oil firm Rosneft, which partially owns the. pipeline.

Iraqi oil ministry authorities told the Kurdish negotiating. group they consider the arrangement in between KRG and Rosneft prohibited. and a violation of legitimate Iraqi laws, stated Kurdistan. region-based energy adviser Bahjat Ahmed who was informed about. the talks.

A KRG spokesman did not respond to ask for remark.

MUTUAL REQUIREMENT

In spite of tensions between the Kurds and Baghdad, the 2. sides require each other. Kurdish parties have actually assisted Iraqi. political leaders to come to power and Baghdad has actually contributed to the. incomes of Kurdish civil servants and fighters.

KRG exports circulation through a KRG pipeline to Fish-Khabur on. the northern Iraqi border, where the oil goes into Turkey and is. pumped to the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

Three sources from the state-run North Oil Business (NOC). stated crude test pumping began early last week to inspect the. parts of the pipeline that run inside Iraqi territories and. found leakage in some sections.

Iraqi technical NOC teams have accelerated repair work operations. to repair the broken areas that run from Kirkuk through the. provinces of Salahuddin and Mosul to the border area with. Turkey.

The 2 Iraqi oil authorities and a government energy adviser. said the agreement between Baghdad and Ankara on the Iraq-Turkey. oil pipeline (ITP) operations was extended in 2010 for 15 years. and will expire in mid-2025.

The resumption of operations at the old pipeline will be. talked about as part of talks to extend the (ITP) agreement, the. federal government energy adviser stated.

(source: Reuters)