Iraq invites bids for new oil pipeline

BAGHDAD — Iraq's oil ministry on Sunday called for bids for the construction of a new pipeline to allow oil exports to resume from the northern province of Kirkuk to neighbouring Turkey.

The pipeline is to run for 350 kilometres and have a capacity of more than a million barrels per day, the ministry said.

It is to replace one built in the 1980s that was damaged in attacks by the terror group Daesh.

Iraq had exported 250,000 to 400,000 barrels per day through that pipeline before Daesh militants swept across large parts of the country and neighbouring Syria in 2014.

The new pipeline will replace a section of the route from oil-rich Kirkuk province, under Baghdad's control since October, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

It will transport crude from the area of Baiji, in the province of Salaheddine to the south of Kirkuk, to the Fishkhabur border post with Turkey further north.

Foreign and local companies have a month to bid for the project, a quarter of which will be awarded to local companies, the ministry said.

Iraqi government and paramilitary forces moved in to take over Kirkuk and its oilfields after Iraqi Kurds in September voted for independence in a controversial referendum opposed by Baghdad.

Iraqi forces have declared victory over Daesh in the country, while US-backed forces are pressing a campaign to expel the militants from eastern Syria.