Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO says a controversial pipeline to carry oil from Kurdistan to Turkey is close to completion.
The pipeline, which has upset Iraq’s central government in Baghdad, is now just metres from the Fishkharbour pumping station, which would allow it to be tied into existing pipelines or loaded onto trucks at the Turkish border.
That would include the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline which has suffered significant disruption from insurgent attacks – including claims earlier this week of bomb attacks halting the flow.
DNO, which operates the Tawke oil fiel in northern Iraq, saw profits rise to 280 million Krone ($46.7million) for the second quarter of the year, after making a 176million krone loss in the same period last year.
The company does not export from Tawke currently, so sells oil locally, but posted its highest daily production and sales in the last quarter – with a tarket of 200,000 boed from the field by the end of next year.
We continue to de-risk and deliver across our portfolio and most impressively in our operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq,” said ” said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO chairman.