(Iraq) Twin Pipeline To Turkey Rendered Useless, Says Minister

[Strelnikov_]

Sounds like those oil revenues are off the table.

Twin Pipeline To Turkey Rendered Useless, Says Minister
By Ibrahim Boazi
Azzaman, November 18, 2006

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2006-11-18%5Ckurd1.htm

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/11/18/10083455.html

The twin pipeline which once used to carry more than 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil to terminals in Turkey is no longer of any use, according to Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. Repeated rebel attacks and lack of repairs have rendered the pipeline useless, he said. The pipeline used to carry crude from oil fields of Kirkuk to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean.

But it was also linked to a strategic pipeline which gave the country the flexibility of shipping oil from the northern fields to southern terminals on the Gulf and from southern oil fields to terminals in Turkey via the twin pipeline. That possibility is no more with the destruction of the twin pipeline. With twin pipeline declared dead, the country loses yet another important chunk of its oil industry infrastructure.

The pipeline’s loss means that anti-U.S. rebels have finally succeeded in putting the gigantic oil fields of Kirkuk outside the reach of international markets, and denying the pro-U.S. government in Baghdad an important source of hard cash. The pipeline’s destruction will have far reaching repercussions on the country’s refining capacity already slashed to less than half of pre-war levels.


Iraq’s largest refining complex at Beiji, north of Baghdad, relies heavily on secondary pipelines linked to Kirkuk oil fields. Experts say rebels have recently intensified their attacks on these pipelines with the aim of putting them out of order for good. “That will reduce the country’s fuel production to a trickle,” one expert, refusing to be named, said.
Iraq now will have to solely rely on exports from southern terminals and oil production from fields in the south where rival Shiite militias exercise control. Fuel shortages are worsening in Iraq, though endowed with massive oil reserves.