Iraq oil flows to Turkey despite threats and attacks

DUBAI (Reuters) – Oil keeps flowing from Iraq to Turkey through a pipeline skirting Iraq’s Kurdish region despite threats to infrastructure from Kurdish rebels and insurgent sabotage attacks further south, an oil shipper said on Thursday.

Iraq was pumping around 400,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk crude to Turkey on Thursday for the seventh consecutive day, the shipper said.
“The flow is about 18,000 barrels per hour,” he said. “They are having some success at keeping it going.

Concerns that the flow might be halted due to clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels helped take oil futures to a record of over $90 a barrel last week.

A pro-rebel news agency quoted one of the leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) last week as saying the guerrillas could strike oil pipelines if Turkish troops attacked them.

“We have no specific policy on pipelines but we are now waging a defensive war… Since pipelines that cross Kurdistan provide the economic resources for the Turkish army’s aggression, it is possible the guerrillas target them,” the Firat news agency quoted PKK commander Murat Karayilan saying.

Reuters UK