Page 5 - MEOG Week 01 2023

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

Production push Ruptures in the conduits forced the terminal
The nationwide target was reaffirmed in to go offline in 2017 and they have only returned
mid-November by Alaa Alyasri, director-gen- to operations briefly during the intervening
eral of the state oil marketer SOMO, but has period despite BOC’s efforts to rehabilitate them.
come under scrutiny given some inconsistency A spill occurred at ABOT in mid-September,
in statements by former Oil Minister Ihsan which saw export capacity constrained by 1mn
Abdul Jabbar, who suggested at various points barrels for less than a day. It noted that loading
in the last year or so that capacity could reach and exporting from ABOT’s single-point moor-
8mn bpd, and at others 7mn bpd. ings (SPMs) had not been interrupted; rather
SOMO announced this week that exports had that the interruption had occurred at the main
run at 3.33mn bpd during December, netting oil terminal.
revenues of $7.6bn. Of this, 3.25mn bpd came Al-Ghalbi noted that KAAOT has “a group
from fields in the centre and south of the coun- of export pipelines 1 and 2 [also] of 48 inches,
try, with the remaining flows from the Kirkuk which are for transporting crude oil exclusively
oilfield piped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for from Al-Faw to the unilateral export platforms
onward export. 1, 2, 3 and 5, and they are in very excellent
In a separate statement, the Ministry of Oil condition.”
(MoO) announced that Iraq had earned more While BOC said last year that a contractor
than $115bn from the sale of 1.2bn barrels of oil. had been hired to find and repair the faults on
the export line, Al-Ghalbi said this last week that
Export expansion “the contract is currently in the process of being
Alongside the drive to raise output capacity, Iraq signed”.
has been working to step up its export capa- Previously announced plans by BOC include
bilities, which for years have been largely con- the installation of a third sealine, with the com-
strained to the Al-Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT). pany aiming to resume exports from KAAOT’s
After a string of announcements suggesting SPMs by the end of 2023.
that progress was near during 2022, BOC seems When this happens, the terminal is antici-
to have firmed up plans that will reinvigorate its pated to operate at around 400,000 bpd, down
KAAOT facility. from its 600,000 bpd capacity prior to going
The company’s assistant general manager for offline.
production affairs, Bassem Al-Ghalbi, told the Now, “there is a plan to install new sealines 4
Iraqi News Agency (INA) this week that a con- and 5 as an alternative to the old lines, under the
tract would soon be signed to replace the export supervision of the Italian company Eni, operator
pipeline that feeds KAAOT, while plans are of the Zubair oilfield.”
underway under the supervision of Italian major This will include the laying of two 48-inch
Eni to install new lines that run to the facility’s pipelines as well as the construction and instal-
single-point moorings (SPMs). lation of new SPM facilities, with BOC preparing
Al-Ghalbi said: “The old sea pipelines, a tender worth around $1bn that will be opened
sealines 1 and 2, were established in 1970, and up to international companies.
they are 48 inches [1,219mm] in size, and are In March, BOC said that the pipeline over-
now at risk of damage that leads to loss of pro- haul is part of efforts to increase crude export
duction.” He emphasised the urgent need to capacity from the southern ports to 6mn bpd
replace these lines owing to risk of pollution by 2026. Iraq’s current export capacity from its
because of their state of disrepair. southern oil terminals is around 3.4mn bpd.™

Week 01 04•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P5