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Pipeline problems hamper exports via Turkey

Chronic outages due to smuggling and technical failures along the Turkish side of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline have sapped both federal and KRG oil sales.
The original start of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline in Kirkuk. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report)

ERBIL - As the cash-starved Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) pushes to increase oil exports to Turkey, it faces not only political and legal complications from its disputes with Baghdad, but also operational problems with the Turkish pipeline that carries oil to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

Pipeline outages on the Turkish side of the border have prevented about $509 million worth of Iraqi oil from being sold through the first half of this year, according to an Iraq Oil Report analysis of figures released by Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and Turkey's state pipeline company, Botas.

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