ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—An explosion that targeted a major pipeline in Saladin province on Thursday has halted the flow of oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, officials said.
“Oil pumping operations stopped from the Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan after it was subjected to an act of sabotage at 6:00 pm on Thursday near the Baiji refinery,” Kirkuk Now website quoted a North Oil Company official as saying.
Baiji 45 kilometers north of Tikrit has been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents in the past decade. Iraqi officials say that in 2013 the Kirkuk- Ceyhan pipeline had been attacked more than 50 times.
Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reported last month that Baghdad had raised its flow of oil through the Kirkuk-Cehyan to lessen the capacity of Kurdish oil export to Turkey.
Thursday’s attack came hours after Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz confirmed in a press conference the arrival of crude oil from the Kurdistan Region in Turkish storage hubs.
“The flow of crude oil from Iraq has begun. It is being stored. It will not be exported without the consent of the Iraqi government," said Yildiz.
According to the Turkish minister, oil flows at 300-400,000 bpd, but that it would be held until Baghdad and Erbil have reached a final agreement on oil exports.
Meanwhile, after a meeting between Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and his Iraqi counterpart, Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad last month, both sides said they were optimistic about finalizing an agreement in the coming days.
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