Kurdistan oil flow to Turkey temporarily halted for ‘planned maintenance'
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdish oil flow to the Ceyhan port in Turkey will be halted for about three days due to planned maintenance on the pipeline, the Kurdish government reported on Monday.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) posted on Twitter that the maintenance was due in March 2017.
However, Turkish Botas Company and MNR later agreed to postpone it to April 10.
The Ministry also mentioned the work on the pipeline would take up to three days.
Oil flows to Ceyhan temporarily halted for planned maintenance. Work was due March, but Botas/ MNR agreed to defer until Apr 10 for 2-3 days
— KRG-MNR (@MNRKurdistan) April 10, 2017
In another tweet, the MNR stated the Iraqi state-sponsored North Oil Company (NOC) would also take the opportunity to fix technical problems with the Kirkuk oil pipeline to minimize overall disruption in oil flow.
At same time, NOC taking the opportunity to repair a technical problem w Kirkuk ppline, and so minimize overall disruption to flows
— KRG-MNR (@MNRKurdistan) April 10, 2017
The Kurdistan Region has billions of proven oil reserves that export 600,000 oil barrels per day to Turkey’s Ceyhan port which is then transferred to the international oil markets.
The federal government of Iraq has frequently threatened to sue the buyers of Kurdistan’s crude oil.
Despite this, the KRG continues to export its oil abroad, claiming it is the constitutional right of the autonomous Region to administrate its resources.
The revenue of the Kurdistan Region mostly relies on the export of crude oil.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany