ERBIL: Oil exports via pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkey slipped to an average of 595,528 barrels per day (bpd) in October, the Kurdistan region’s ministry of natural resources said on Tuesday.
That represents a decrease of around 5,000 bpd from September.
Exports via the pipeline to Turkey have steadily increased this year, but since June the Kurds have cut allocations to Iraq’s state oil marketing firm SOMO to increase their own independent crude sales.
That has effectively nullified a deal reached late last year whereby the Kurds agreed to transfer an average of 550,000 bpd to SOMO in 2015, in exchange for the full reinstatement of budget payments from Baghdad.
Kurdistan transferred no crude to SOMO during the month, the statement said.
The pipeline was idled for three days in October due to “attempts at sabotage and theft”, the statement said.
The oil pumped through the pipeline comes mainly from fields within the Kurdistan region, which accounted for 439,073 bpd on average in September. The rest came from the disputed Kirkuk fields operated by Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company (NOC) but under Kurdish control.
The bulk of Iraq’s oil exports are produced and shipped from the southern provinces, which dropped sharply to an average of 2.7 bpd, the oil ministry said on Sunday, citing shipment delays caused by poor weather.
