Iraqi-Iranian agreement to revive the oil pipeline project

Baghdad announced on Monday that Iraq and Iran have agreed to revive a project for the oil pipeline to help in the crisis of fuel shortage in Iraq.

The spokesman for the Iraqi ministry of oil, Asem Jihad, said that the twin pipeline which was proposed in 2004, will permit Iraq to receive 150,000 barrels of crude oil from the oil fields of the south sent to the Iranian Abadan oil refinery and hand over the equivalent of refined oil.

Jihad added that the southern sea oil exports stations can at the meantime cope with the export capacity, noting that this issue was seriously discussed during a meeting last week between the Iraqi oil minister Ibrahim Baher al-Oloum and the Iranian ambassador and that the Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi raised this issue during his visit to Baghdad in May.

The current plan, contrary to the original proposal of erecting pipelines for 400,000 barrels daily, does not intend at increasing the Iraqi oil exports directly.

Worthy mentioning that the blowing up operations, the old deteriorating oil refineries, and the increase demands for oil following the invasion of Iraq, resulted in drastic shortage in fuel. This shortage cost Iraq 1.6 billion dollars to import refined oil byproducts, excluding the cost of contracts finalized by the occupation authorities under the USA.