At the current stage, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil is pursuing a sound policy of meticulous accuracy, clear objectives and practical steps to address the country’s difficult economic and financial challenges, promoting real comprehensive development and planning to increase the financial revenues of the Iraqi State Treasury.
Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar Luaibi stressed to accelerate the resumption of oil exports through the network of oil pipelines, which runs from the fields of Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, through the governorates of Salah al-Din and Nineveh, in an attempt to avoid the line that passes through the Kurdistan region.
Luaibi instructed the North Oil Company, the oil projects company and the pipeline company to develop an urgent and deliberate plan to proceed for the implementation of a comprehensive and urgent repair and rehabilitation of the network of pipelines carrying crude oil from Kirkuk fields to the Turkish port of Ceyha by the national effort.
The Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar Laiibi stressed the ministry’s commitment to the national constants to keep the oil sector away from political conflicts and to ensure the optimal investment of national wealth and development of it to serve the Iraqi people in all its segments and components and not to use national wealth as a means of pressure and bargaining at the expense of national constants
He called on all parties to a serious and constructive national dialogue away from slogans and narrow interests that do not serve the public interest, and work together to find appropriate solutions to outstanding problems, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and laws and regulations in force.
The Minister also stressed that the rate of export from Kirkuk to Ceyhan to reach 400 thousand barrels per day, with the possibility of adding new energies to enhance its exports through the northern outlet.
The pipeline between Kirkuk and Jihan is 970 kilometers long and it connects the city of Kirkuk in Iraq with the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, the largest export line of crude oil in Iraq.
The line, which began in 1976, consists of two pipes, the first with diameter of 46-inch (1,120-millimeter), the other with a diameter of 40-inch (1,020 mm) and a design capacity of 500,000 to 1,100,000 barrels.
In the same context, the member of the state of law Coalition, Sheikh Ali Faisal al-Fayadh called on the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to send federal forces to Kirkuk and impose control over all oil fields, which were run by the Ministry of Oil before the entry of gangs of the terrorist ISIS to Iraqi territory.
While the Baghdad government renewed its refusal to resume dialogue with the region only after the cancellation of the results of the referendum on secession, which is rejected by the administration of the region and adhere to it with its consent to conduct an unconditional dialogue with Baghdad noting that Baghdad, Turkey and Iran took several punitive measures in response to the referendum conducted on 25th of the Last September, and 92% of voters voted for secession from Baghdad.
The measures included a ban on financial transactions and international flights to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil airports.
It is worth to be noted that the province of Kirkuk was seized by the terrorist organization “ISIS” in 2014 and retaken by Iraqi forces backed by the United States during the past two years.
Economic unity
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies