Page 12 - Downstream Monitor - MEA Week 35

DMEA PiPeLines DMEA
Iraqi exports increase despite pipe issues
miDDLe east
IRAQ’S crude oil exports increased to 3.603mn barrels per day during August, up from 3.566mn bpd in July, according to a statement by the country’s Ministry of Oil (MoO).
As usual, exports from terminals in the southern province of Basra accounted for the vast majority, with flows there reaching 3.468mn bpd, an increase of 33,000 bpd compared to July.
Iraq’s one major alternative to maritime exports is the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline, which is often also referred to as the Iraq-Turkey Pipe- line (ITP). This has suffered from a serious lack of maintenance and has been taken offline in its entirety at various points following attacks. The MoO said that the pipeline saw oil flows average 105,000 bpd during August.
Kirkuk-Ceyhan consists of two strings, which originally had an original combined nameplate capacity of 1.6mn bpd, with the wider, 46-inch (1,168-mm) pipe capable of carrying 1.1mn bpd and the narrower 40-inch (1,016-mm) line 500,000 bpd.
However, following years of sabotage and disrepair, Downstream MEA (DMEA) reported in July that Kirkuk-Ceyhan is rarely capable of achieving anywhere near its total capacity.
There is also an Erbil-controlled pipeline, which runs from the Taq Taq field via Khurmala and connects to Kirkuk-Ceyhan at the metering station in the border town of Fishkhabur. This line was designed to carry 700,000 bpd, but fed- eral Iraqi oil would need to be put in control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to make use of the conduit.
There has been a significant ramping up in rhetoric regarding the planned pipeline to take oil from Basra to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, and relations between the two countries will be improved by the resumption of Iraqi oil ship- ments to Jordan’s sole refinery this week.
The implementation of the $5bn Bas- ra-Aqaba pipeline has been agreed upon by Baghdad and Amman, with plans entailing a 1mn bpd line taking southern Iraqi oil to Jor- dan’s Red Sea coast. The project recently received endorsement from the Iraqi Cabinet, including Jordan having the right to buy 150,000 bpd of oil transferred through the 1,700-km pipeline.
The MoO noted that it had achieved $6.341bn in revenues from crude in August, based on an average sale price of $56.77 per barrel.™
P12
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 35 05•September•2019