Oil output in Kirkuk falls 902

(MENAFN- Arab News) ISTANBUL: Oil output in Iraq's Kirkuk has slumped to 30000 barrels a day since June 90 percent down on earlier this year and a federal pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan may be out of action for over a year due to sabotage Kirkuk's governor said on Thursday.

In February this year Iraqi oil production hit record highs of 2.8 million bpd nationwide with an estimated 300000 bpd coming from the northern province of Kirkuk.

"There have been no exports since March and the only production in Kirkuk has been the 30000 bpd to a small refinery and enough gas to get our electrical grid going since June 8" Najmaldin Karim Kirkuk's governor told reporters at an industry conference in Istanbul.

"I don't think there will be exports from Kirkuk to the Ceyhan pipeline any time soon. It has been sabotaged continuously and to get it all back would take at least a year or more" he added.

The federal pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan has a capacity of 1.6 million bpd but has for years been operating at around a third of that and recently even less a Turkish official said.

Damage to the pipeline is a further blow to the beleaguered authorities in Baghdad but will not affect the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which began exporting oil in May via its own pipeline which links to the federal Iraqi pipeline at Turkey's border and has not been sabotaged.