BAGHDAD: Oil exports from northern Iraq via pipeline to Turkey rose to an average of 601,811 barrels per day (bpd) in January, the Kurdistan region’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on Thursday, up around 17,755 bpd from December.
The pipeline, which links oilfields in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region and Kirkuk with Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, was idle for one day in January “for circumstances beyond the (government’s) control”, the ministry said.
Exports via the pipeline increased steadily last year as the Kurds cut allocations to Iraq’s state oil marketing firm SOMO from June, ramping up their own independent crude sales in an effort to tackle an acute economic crisis. The ministry’s data indicates no crude was transferred to SOMO in January.
Under the terms of the 2016 Iraqi budget, the Kurds are entitled to a set share on condition they contribute 550,000 bpd of oil to SOMO. Most of the oil was pumped from fields within the Kurdistan region, which accounted for 452,145 bpd in January.
The rest came from the disputed Kirkuk field, which is operated by Iraq’s state-run North Oil Co but has been under Kurdish control since June 2014 when Islamic State militants overran the north of the country.
