Trucking Oil From Kirkuk Delayed

EghtesadOnline: A plan to truck oil from Iraq's northern Kirkuk fields to Iran cannot be fully implemented at this stage due to security concerns, the head of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce said on Monday.

News ID: ۷۸۱۹۴۸

27 February 2018

Iraq and Iran have agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from Kirkuk for Iranian oil to be delivered to southern Iraq, CNBC reported.

About 30,000 barrels per day of crude are to be trucked to Iran's Kermanshah Refinery in the first stage, Financial Tribune reported.

"Iran is facing problems to implement the agreement due to security issues," said Hamid Hosseini, the Iranian secretary-general of the chamber, said.

"Iran does not have X-ray machines to scan the trucks coming from Iraq," he was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Hosseini announced that Iran was in talks with Iraq to use their X-ray facilities.

Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said last month that exporting oil from the Kirkuk fields to Iran would start before the end of January.

Iraq and Iran plan to build a pipeline to carry oil from Kirkuk to avoid having to use trucks. The planned pipeline could replace the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean.

The official said that although the two states are rivals in the global oil market, they can collaborate in oil projects as they share a large number of massive hydrocarbon reserves, namely Azadegan, Yaran, Yadavaran, Azar, Dehloran, West Paydar and Naft-Shahr.