KRG, Iran closing in on pipeline

ERBIL, June 22, 2016 – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iran are reportedly ready to finalise and sign an agreement on a pipeline that would see the KRG transport as much as 250,000 bopd to Iranian refineries, a senior KRG official said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Taha Zangana, the KRG official who represented Erbil in the talks, said the two parties had an “understanding” on exports. “The technical aspects have been talked about and are clear to both sides. What remains is the political and commercial side of it,” he said, adding that final details are expected to be ironed out at a high-level meeting scheduled for after Ramadan.

“It’s important for us to have an alternative route for exporting oil by building [another] physical oil pipeline to transport Kurdistan oil to [the] international market,” Zangana said, referring to the KRG’s dependence on the northern export route to Ceyhan, Turkey.
According to various reports, the pipeline should run from Koysinjaq in the Kurdistan Region and cross into Iran via the Iraqi-Iranian border crossing and/or the Parvez Khan crossing, onwards to Tabriz and Kermanshah, respectively. Arak and Tehran have also been named as termination points.

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