Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi is scheduled to visit Ankara in the coming days to discuss the resumption of Kirkuk exports to Ceyhan, a key imperative for restarting production at the Avana Dome and Bai Hassan. Federal Iraqi forces retook Kirkuk and surrounding fields last year (MEES, 20 October 2017), but with limited export capacity, North Oil Company (NOC) is left with few options except leaving the oil in the ground. Output is currently limited to 150,000 b/d.
Iraq and Iran signed a deal in December 2017 to truck up to 60,000 b/d of Kirkuk crude to the Kermanshah refinery to help alleviate the export issue (MEES, 8 December 2017). Slated to start in January, the scheme was pushed back to February, and now awaits the destruction of “sleeper cells” in the mountainous region east of Tuz Khurmatu before the trucking can begin. Lying 300km from Kirkuk, the 21,000 b/d Kermanshah refinery is too small to process the full volumes, and trucked amounts are unlikely to hit 60,000 b/d. The deal amounts to little more than a bandage over a large abrasion. (CONTINUED - 1044 WORDS)
