ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Exports of Kirkuk’s oil will stay at current levels, Iraq’s oil minister told reporters on Wednesday. Minister Thamer Ghadhban said that exports through the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s pipeline to Ceyhan will stay at 80 – 90,000 barrels per day (bpd). Kirkuk is producing about 370,000 bpd, but most of that is being sent to domestic refineries. Iraqi forces seized control of Kirkuk’s oil fields in October 2017, but Baghdad was unable to export any of the province’s oil until finally striking a deal with the KRG to use its pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port, announced more than a year later on November 16, 2018. The exports started off slowly, with 261,466 barrels exported in November, according to figures released by the ministry. British oil and gas giant BP is conducting a study to boost Kirkuk’s production, in coordination with Iraq’s North Oil Company (NOC), Farid al-Jadir, head of North Oil Company, said at the same news conference. “They are currently on the ground and we expect to present the final study before the end of next year before reaching an agreement with the company,” Jadir explained. Iraq’s economy is dependent on oil exports.
