Iraq needs a further eight to twelve months before it can resume oil exports from its northern oilfields via Turkey, halted by sabotage, Oil Minister Hashem al-Hashemi said on Tuesday.
"The manifold pipeline was totally destroyed and it is not working at all. So there is no way to export oil from the north," he told Reuters in his first interview to international media.
"It will take months before we fix it...the exports will stay on hold from the north for months. Some say eight months others say twelve, it depends how fast the work goes and also on the security situation," he added.
The manifold gathers oil from feeder pipelines to pump it into the export line.
Exports via a pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal on Turkey's Mediterranean coast resumed briefly in January after being halted for weeks by a major attack in October. "There is no way to export oil from there - not before we fix the centre. It will take time," Hashemi said. Iraq's exports hit their lowest level since 2003 in December and January at around 1.1 million barrels per day.
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