BAGHDAD: Iraq has given foreign energy companies a month to signal their interest in building a new export pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields in the north of the country.
The new pipeline will replace an old and severely damaged section of the Kirkuk Ceyhan pipeline. It will start from oilfields near Kirkuk and extend to the Fish Khabur border area with Turkey.
Iraq’s oil ministry set January 24 as the deadline for companies to submit letters of interest in building the new pipeline, the ministry said in a statement. The 350km pipeline which will have the capacity to transport more than one million barrels per day and will be run under an investment model known as “build-operate-transfer,” oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said. Exports from oilfields in Kirkuk have been on hold since Iraqi government forces took control of them from the Kurds last month in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence which was widely opposed by Turkey, Iran and Western powers.
