Kirkuk Crude to Go to Iraqi, Iranian Refineries

Kirkuk Crude to Go to Iraqi, Iranian Refineries

Iraq plans to channel most of the output from the disputed Kirkuk oilfields to Iraqi oil refineries, an Iraqi official told Reuters.

The Iraqi refineries under consideration are the Dora and Baiji refineries.

In addition to shipments to the Iraqi refineries, 30,000 barrels per day (b/d) will be trucked to the Kermanshah refinery in Iran, the official said.

Iraq has also floated the idea of constructing a new pipeline to restore oil flows along the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, according to Reuters.

Crude from the Kirkuk oilfields has traditionally been piped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

In 2014, as ISIS swept across northern Iraq, the central government lost control of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. At the same time, the forces of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), took over Kirkuk and its oilfields to prevent the advance of ISIS fighters as the Iraqi Army melted away.

Once in control of the oilfields, the KRG began exporting Kirkuk crude through its own pipeline to Turkey. This arrangement, however, came to an end when Iraq sent federal forces into Kirkuk last month to seize the oilfields, resulting in a significant drop in oil exports from northern Iraq.

Exports through the KRG pipeline stood at 270,000 b/d last week, less than half the 600,000 previously exported through it before the central government’s military action against the KRG, according to Reuters.

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