A senior Iraqi energy official has said that oil could be sent from Kirkuk in the north of Iraq to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery in the coming weeks, according to Fars News.

“The swap deal was agreed at the end of 2017, under which Iraq is about to truck 60,000 b/d of crude oil to Iran,” head of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) Alaa Al-Yasiri stated.

Al-Yasiri added that Iran will export the crude on behalf of Iraq through its Kharq terminal on the Persian Gulf.

A deal to truck 30,000 b/d of crude from Kirkuk was underway in February but an Iranian official stated that the swap plan was facing delays due to security concerns.

Al-Yasiri alluded to a dispute between the regional Kurdistan government and Baghdad hindering the swap.

Iran and Iraq also plan to build a pipeline to carry oil from Kirkuk to Iranian refineries in Kermanshah, Tabriz, Tehran and Arak, circumventing the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean.