“Of course we are fearful. What I laid out concerning a pipeline through Jordan, or through Fishkhabur, as related to our inflexibility, is part of our fear because Iraq’s oil is exported from southern outlets, particularly through the Hormuz strait,” Abdul-Mahdi said on Tuesday.
Iraqi oil is primarily sent to the ports in Basra and to domestic refineries. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also exports oil through a pipeline that terminates at Ceyhan Port in Turkey.
In the his Council of Ministers also on Tuesday, a number of “recommendations” were made concerning pipeline exports to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu Port, and via Fishkhabur in the Kurdistan Region, the PM revealed. The Iraq-Jordan crude oil pipeline was approved for recommendation and sent to the Ministerial Council for Energy.
“We believe these are strategic plans. When it comes to flexibility in oil exports, Iraq frankly has a weakness,” the PM lamented, adding that Iraq had multiple oil export outlets in the past compared to today.
An industrial city for oil exports was also discussed, although its location wasn’t revealed.
“Now the main export outlet for the essential oil exports is the south, in addition to the Kurdistan line Fishkhabur-Ceyhan,” added the PM.
Currently, there is a pipeline under the authority of the KRG that goes through Fishkhabur to Turkey’s Ceyhan. Another Iraqi pipeline along the same path is out of commission and requires renewal, something Turkey has showed a readiness for. The pipeline faced multiple attacks post-2003.
Two more pipelines, the Syrian pipeline, and the Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA) are in “disrepair” and are obsolete.
Graphic: Sarkawt Mohammed | Rudaw English, Maps4News
Iraq exports around 3.5 million barrels of oil daily. The majority is from the southern oil fields and exported through Basra’s ports to international markets.
“Iraq urgently needs to speed up diversifying export lines since you know of our dependence on oil wealth,” the PM added.
If nothing is done soon, Iraq will face “very complicated” issues in the future in its oil sector, Abdul-Mahdi cautioned. So the Ministry of Oil will commence studying “viability” of plans for pipelines which could go to Jordan, Syria and elsewhere, the PM added.
Any “obstacle” in the strategic Strait of Hormuz will be a “huge impediment” to the Iraqi economy, the PM added. However, there are available solutions and alternatives, the PM claimed, without elaborating.
Since the US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, tensions have been running high in the waterway that is 55-95 kilometers wide and carries about 30 percent of the world’s crude oil and other derivatives.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has more than once threatened to block the Strait should the US prevent Iran from exporting its oil.
On Tuesday, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford floated the idea of creating a multi-national naval coalition on waters off of Iran, and Yemen to secure commercial shipping lanes.
Energy rich, but inefficient Iraq imports around 1,000 megawatts of electricity from neighboring Iran. Baghdad would like to connect its electricity grid to those in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other regional countries in much the same way it wants to diversify its oil export routes.
Successive Iraqi governments have been unable to provide 24-hour electricity to the public since the 2003 war. Blackouts are a daily occurrence across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and have become a soaring source of public resentment.
