Northern pipeline restart offers limited relief

KIRKUK - Iraq has started pumping about 250,000 bpd of crude from federal fields in Kirkuk to Turkey for export, providing the country with a relatively small but vital route to global markets while its primary Basra Gulf outlets remain closed due to war.

Despite the urgency of maximizing oil revenues at a time of fiscal crisis, Iraq's northern exports appear unlikely to rise much higher in the coming weeks due to a combination of infrastructure constraints and ongoing security threats against oil fields managed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).