Iraq has stopped pumping its Kirkuk crude oil by pipeline to Turkey as storage tanks at the port of Ceyhan are full after steady flows for almost two weeks, a shipping agent said on Monday.
The increase in storage volumes comes as Iraq is planning in January to start sales of Kirkuk crude in term contracts for the first time since 2004, reflecting more reliable flows along the 600-mile (966 km) pipeline. "They stopped pumping yesterday because all the tanks are full, 6.8 million barrels," the shipping agent said. "There is no other reason for the stoppage."
Increased sales via Turkey have lifted Iraq's oil exports to the highest in three years and enabled it to benefit from record-high oil prices. Baghdad previously relied on its southern export route in Basra. Oil shipments hit 58.9 million barrels in November (1.96 million bpd), sold at an average price of $83.87 a barrel, the oil ministry said on Sunday.
Iraq is planning to sell 400,000 bpd or more of Kirkuk in term contracts starting in January, at least 100,000 bpd more than previously planned, an Iraqi oil official told Reuters on Friday. The pipeline route to Turkey from Iraq's northern oilfields had been idled by sabotage and technical problems for much of the time since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Ceyhan has the capacity to store 8 million barrels of Kirkuk crude, according to shipping agents and a source at Iraq's oil ministry. Two of the storage tanks at Ceyhan are out of service for repair work, reducing capacity to 6.8 million barrels, the shipping agent said.
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