Tony Hayward, Ex-BP CEO, Gets His Life Back as Kurdish Pipeline Opens

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-21/ex-bp-ceo-gets-his-life-back-as-kurdish-pipeline-opens.html

Erbil, the regional capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, has all the trappings of an oil boomtown. It bristles with construction cranes. Land Cruisers and Range Rovers with tinted windows ply the busy streets. Oil workers and briefcase-bearing foreigners crowd into the Divan Erbil Hotel’s piano bar.

At the foot of the 8,000-year-old Citadel -- which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world -- currency traders in the central market swap dollars, euros and Turkish liras for Iraqi dinars out of glass boxes on the sidewalk. Shoppers flock to Erbil’s Family Mall, which features stores such as French hypermarket operator Carrefour SA (CA) and Spanish clothing chain Mango.

With the opening of a new oil pipeline this year, the boom is getting a boost, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its June issue. Crude that used to be transported by truck across the rugged, mountainous terrain of the three northern provinces known as Iraqi Kurdistan began flowing in stages through the pipeline in January.

The conduit, built by the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, runs about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Khurmala, southwest of Erbil, to the Turkish border, where it connects with an existing link to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Oil that sells for about $70 a barrel domestically could fetch $100 or so in world markets.