Pipeline delays cap Iraq’s northern exports

ERBIL - Iraq’s work to rehabilitate the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) is still several months from completion, according to multiple Iraqi oil and political officials — a delay with significant implications for Baghdad’s relationship with both Erbil and Ankara.

While parts of the pipeline are nearly ready and undergoing hydrostatic testing, other segments are still badly damaged, several oil officials said, in sharp contrast to public Oil Ministry statements in March that crude could begin flowing within a week.