Crude oil export in Kurdish area to officially start Monday – official

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Preparations were finalized to officially export crude oil from the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan as of Monday, an official source at an oil company said. “We have finalized all the preparations. A few days ago we conducted a test pumping, and now we are exporting oil officially as of tomorrow (June 1),” Mohammed Okotan, project director at the Taqtaq oil company, told IraqiNews.com news agency. Taqtaq lies the district of Kuwaysanjaq, northern Iraq . The natural wealth ministry in the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s government had revealed on May 9 that crude oil exports will be officially launched as of June 1. The ministry approved exporting 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the Tawqi field and 40,000 bpd from Kuwaysanjaq. The barrels will be carried by trucks to Kirkuk , where the pipelines will send them to Ceyhan , Turkey . “Taqtaq oil wells produce about 50,000 barrels, of which 40,000 are exported and 10,000 for local consumption,” Okotan said. AmR (P)/SR 1