Page 5 - MEOG Week 02 2022

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

Noting that “practical steps” had been taken, have been largely shut in since leakages occurred
Al-Athari added that the “concerned authorities in 2017, caused by ruptures in the line.
in Iraq are now considering all those bids”, with- Fadhil said that maintenance work to enable
out identifying any of the bidders nor indicating the resumption of loading at KAAOT is expected
a timeline for a potential award. to be completed by the end of this year. When
operations resume, the terminal is anticipated to
Export expansion operate at around 400,000 bpd, down from its
Meanwhile, in late December, the deputy 600,000 bpd capacity prior to going offline.
manager of state-owned Basra Oil Co. (BOC), Work to rehabilitate and expand capabilities
Ahmed Fadhil said that work would soon kick at the southern ports is soon likely to be joined
off to upgrade export facilities on the Gulf to by efforts to overhaul the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipe-
enable a near doubling of the current 3.2mn bpd line, which has been shut in since the rise of
export capacity to 6mn bpd by 2025. so-called IS in 2014.
Speaking to Reuters, Fadhil, who heads up In September, the MoO announced that the
the company’s operations to upgrade oil export governments of Iraq and Turkey would work to
facilities, said that work would begin in Q2 with reopen the 970-km pipeline that transports Iraqi
international services firms invited to compete crude from Kirkuk to export facilities in Ceyhan
for contracts to build replacement oil pipelines to on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
feed the Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT). Abdul Jabbar met with the Turkish ambassa-
The two 48-inch (1,219-mm) lines will dor to Baghdad Ali Riza Guney to discuss plans
replace existing pipes that run from onshore “to rehabilitate the strategic pipeline to transfer
infrastructure to ABOT’s single-point moor- crude oil” from the Gulf to Europe.
ings (SPMs). Fadhil said that work is expected The line, which is often also referred to as
to be completed and the pipes operational in the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP), consists of two
mid-2024. A third conduit is currently under strings, which initially had an original combined
construction and is anticipated to be completed nameplate capacity of 1.6mn bpd, with the wider,
in mid-2023. The pipelines will have a combined 46-inch (1,168-mm) pipe capable of carrying
export capacity of 3mn bpd. 1.1mn bpd and the narrower 40-inch (1,016-
In mid-January, reports emerged that ongo- mm) line 500,000 bpd. However, following years
ing work to raise export capacity at ABOT by of sabotage and disrepair, Kirkuk-Ceyhan has
250,000 bpd would be completed and the new rarely been capable of achieving anywhere near
loading capabilities available to use in Q2. 500,000 bpd.
Meanwhile, Fadhil said that a Russian com- While work has not yet begun, as with the rest
pany had been awarded a deal to assess and carry of Iraq’s renewed focus on oil infrastructure, it is
out repairs on a 42-inch (1,066-mm) underwa- likely to align with Baghdad’s plans to increase
ter pipe that transports oil to the Khor al-Amaya oil production capacity by 3mn bpd from the
Oil Terminal (KAAOT). The facility’s oil exports current 5mn bpd level by 2027.™

Week 02 12•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5