CORRECTS - Iraqi pipeline to send 1M bpd of Kirkuk oil to Turkey

By Idris Okuducu

KIRKUK, Iraq (AA) - Iraq's central government plans to replace the Iraqi section of the oil pipeline stretching from the Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to Turkey’s port of Ceyhan in the southern Adana province, the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced Tuesday.

Construction of the new pipeline is planned from the city of Baiji in the Saladin province, near Kirkuk to the Fish-Khabur border crossing with Turkey, from which the pipeline section in Iraq's territories will be 350 kilometers (217 miles) long.

The new pipeline section, with a daily export capacity of 1 million barrels, will replace an old pipeline that suffered severe damage in terror attacks after Daesh took control of Mosul in June 2014.

In a statement on Oct. 17, the Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi declared that his government aims to increase the export capacity of Kirkuk oil fields from 450 thousand barrels to 1 million barrels per day with the help of international oil companies' investments.

There are five oil fields in Kirkuk, among which Havana and Bai Hassan have a total export capacity of 300 thousand barrels per day, according to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, both of which came under the control of Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) for three years.

The Kirkuk-based North Oil Company could export approximately 150 thousand barrels of oil per day on average from the remaining three Kirkuk oil fields, the oil ministry said.

- Oil exports via Turkey

Since 2014, the main operating route for Kurdish oil has been through Turkey via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline that stretches almost 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from Kirkuk to Turkey's southeastern port of Ceyhan in the Mediterranean Sea.

However, this pipeline has been unable to operate at full capacity since 1990 due to conflicts in Iraq and damage to the pipeline from terrorist attacks.

The illegitimate independence referendum in September -- held in the KRG-controlled areas across northern Iraq, including those disputed with Baghdad -- has also threatened the relationship between Turkey and the KRG, including oil exports via Turkey.

Iraq is the second largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and holds the world's fifth largest proven crude oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).