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| Baiji: Workers are seen in an oil refinery in Baiji, north of Baghdad in this April 2007 file photo. Nuhad Hussin/Reuters/file |
Iraqi oil exports to north rise
Attacks fall sharply on oil pipeline to Turkey thanks to new security measures.
from the September 27, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
But some are skeptical that the pipelines long-term safety is assured. James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum in New York, closely follows the Iraqi oil situation.
While attacks may have gone down on the northern pipeline, Mr. Paul says that the real question is if American and Iraqi security forces can maintain the relative peace. "It's a matter of whether they can keep this thing going," he says. "They don't have a very good record anywhere in the country of maintaining these pipelines."
"It's a shell game," says Paul. He argues that when the US floods an area with troops, the insurgents simply relocate. "The insurgents are not stupid; they don't do stand-up battles with the United States."
Iraqi oil officials in Kirkuk say the region's fields are producing 520,000 barrels a day at the moment, 320,000 of which are piped to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Ministry of Oil officials say current national production is 2.4 million barrels a day – nearly prewar levels – though outside analysts estimate production is close to 2 million barrels.
Iraqi officials say the security improvements in the Kirkuk area could help them lure investment to an industry that is saddled with outdated equipment.
At a recent meeting in Amman, Jordan, Iraqi oil officials discussed the possibility of developing fields in southern Iraq with Chevron, the Kirkuk fields with Shell, and the eastern Baghdad fields with Japex.
The Russian company Ivanov is looking at Ghiada in northwest Iraq, while Conoco Phillips and the Iraqi government's Northern Oil Company (NOC) have an agreement to share information that could lead to the development of a new field in the Kirkuk area, says Manaa Abdullah, the director general of Northern Oil.
Plans are being discussed to build three new major refineries in the north, center, and south. The intent is to produce 6 million barrels a day, and to export 5.2 million barrels by 2010. The NOC would contribute 1.5 million to 2 million barrels, Mr. Abdullah says.
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