Iraq’s oil minister said Baghdad is in talks with Iran about permitting some Iraqi oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday, as Iraq seeks to ease disruptions to crude exports after recent attacks on tankers in its waters.
Iraq is also working to restore a disused pipeline that would allow oil to be pumped directly to Turkey’s Ceyhan port without passing through the Kurdistan region, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a video statement on Monday.
He added that Baghdad will complete an inspection of a 100-km section of the pipeline within a week to enable direct exports from Kirkuk.
Reopening the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, shut for more than a decade, would offer an alternative export route at a time when shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz is severely disrupted by the conflict in the Middle East.
The 960-km pipeline once handled about 0.5% of global supply but was halted in 2014 after repeated attacks by Islamic State militants.
The oil ministry said exports via the route could initially reach about 250,000 barrels per day, rising to about 450,000 bpd if crude from fields in the Kurdistan region is included.
Baghdad has used the Kurdistan pipeline as a temporary route but said the Kurdistan Regional Government set arbitrary conditions for its use and warned it may take legal action if exports are blocked.
Kurdish authorities rejected the accusations, saying they are not obstructing exports and that Baghdad has failed to address security and economic challenges facing the region’s oil sector.
