BAGHDAD, Iraq – Oil exports from Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region will increase to 600,000 barrels per day, Iraq’s oil minister said, as he announced that the country’s overall production had hit a record 4 million bpd in December.
At a news conference with visiting Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz in Baghdad on Sunday, Adil Abdel Mehdi said that exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline would remain at 375,000 bpd until April, when they would go up to 600,000 bpd.
“We have agreed to keep the level of exports at 375,000 bpd for the first three months of the year, and from April we will increase exports to 600,000 bpd,” Abdel Mehdi said.
The oil from Iraq’s north is exported through a pipeline network from the Kurdistan Region to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
After years of bitter disputes, Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reached an interim agreement in early December to export 300,000 bpd of oil from Kirkuk and 250,000 bpd from Kurdistan through the Kurdish pipeline network.
The two sides were forced to set aside differences on Kurdish oil exports after insurgents fighting under the Islamic State (ISIS) banner seized large swathes of Iraqi territory in June.
"We wish the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline to operate at full capacity," Yildiz told reporters.
Abdel Mehdi announced meanwhile that Iraq produced a record 4 million bpd of crude in December, beating a previous high of 3.56 million bpd achieved in 1979.
“It is the first time Iraq has achieved this,” he said.
Yildiz signed a number of energy agreements during his visit, including a deal for Ankara to send a power-generation vessel to the port city of Basra, Iraq’s oil hub where residents have fumed over enriching the country’s coffers while being denied basic services such as adequate electricity.
"The ship will provide much-needed electricity for the city," Yildiz said.
"Basra currently has about 250 megawatts of electricity production capacity. The Turkish power ship will add 410 megawatts more," he explained.
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