OPEC producer Iraq has completed the rehabilitation of the war-damaged oil pipeline to Turkey and it may resume crude exports at the end of April, an Iraqi official has said.

Three companies affiliated to the Iraqi Oil Ministry joined hands to repair the 950-km pipeline, which includes 350km inside Iraq, after it sustained severe bomb damage in 2013 and before.

“The Ministry is working to rehabilitate the pipeline, which will be able to pump nearly 350,000 bpd by the end of April,” Oil Ministry Undersecretary Bassim Mohammed told the official Iraqi News Agency on Friday.

He said 150,000 bpd will be transported in Phase 1.

The pipeline, which was first launched in 1977, runs from the Northern Iraqi Kirkuk Province through Nineveh Governorate to Ceyhan in Turkey.

The agency quoted former cabinet adviser Hamza Jawahri as saying the pipeline, with a designed capacity of 600,000 bpd, has been a target of sabotage.

“The pipeline has been knocked out of service due to sabotage attacks, which destroyed three of five pumping stations…the facility has been rehabilitated, and trial operations are underway,” he said.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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