Iraq plans to double the volume of crude it pumps via a pipeline to Turkey to its regular rate of 150,000 barrels per day next week, an official at state-run North Oil Company told Reuters on Friday. The company on Thursday resumed pumping oil from fields it operates in Kirkuk via the pipeline, which is controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. The KRG-built pipeline runs from Taq Taq Oilfield to Fish Khabur on the border where it connects with the main Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline that runs up to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The company stopped using the pipeline in March due to a dispute between Baghdad and KRG over the control of Kurdish oil exports. Flows began at a rate of about 70,000 bpd on Thursday for conducting tests and will be increased gradually to reach the level of 150,000 bpd, the company official said.
