Iraq needs 8-12 months to resume northern oil exports: minister

Iraq needs 8-12 months to resume northern oil exports: minister

Baghdad (Platts)--30Mar2006

Iraq needs eight to 12 months to before being able to resume crude oil
exports from northern oilfields through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, acting oil
minister Hashem al-Hashemi said Thursday.
"Iraq needs eight to 12 months before being able to resume oil exports
from the country's northern oilfields," he told the US-sponsored al-Hurra
television.
Exports from Ceyhan were halted in late 2004 because of damage caused to
energy infrastructure in the north by insurgents, including persistent attacks
against the Kirkuk to Ceyhan oil pipeline system.
"The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipelines came under recurrent sabotage attacks,
denying us the ability to export through them," Hashemi said.
He expected crude exports through southern terminals to reach 1.5 million
b/d in May. Iraq is currently producing some 350,000 b/d in the north,
occasionally pumping Kirkuk crude through the 900 million b/d capacity
pipeline to Ceyhan for storage though there have been no regular exports from
the north.
Meanwhile, the television report earlier quoted US embassy sources as
saying that the Iraqi government had launched a wide-scale probe into alleged
corruption at the Baiji refinery, the country's biggest.
"The investigation includes many levels to uncover the volume of
administrative corruption and those involved and means of rectifying it," the
source said.
The Iraqi Anti-Corruption Committee, an independent body created by the
US authorities in Iraq and the Iraqi government last year, has previously
spoken of corruption in the 310,000 b/d Baiji refinery, which was built in the
1980s and recently underwent a major upgrade.
Hashemi was appointed acting oil minister in January after former oil
minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum resigned after a dispute with government over
the severe shortage of refined products in the country and government plans to
raise products prices.
--Sabah Jerges, newsdesk@platts.com

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