Turkey: Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in operation after firefight Oil and Gas News

A fire was extinguished as a result of an explosion along the pipeline; the cause remains unknown.

Istanbul, Turkey – The fire in a major oil tanker in Iraq has been extinguished and the system is up and running, according to Turkish oil operator Botas.

An explosion on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan canal in the southeastern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras occurred at around 7.30pm on Tuesday (approximately 16:30 GMT), Botas said on Wednesday, causing the fire to spread to a nearby main highway.

The Karhamanmaras municipal government has said there have been no casualties and dozens of emergency vehicles have been working to put out the blaze.

The cause of the explosion is still being investigated.

The pipeline carries oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where it is loaded onto ships and exported mainly to European buyers.

Last year, the pipeline carried about 450,000 barrels a day. In addition to oil from the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is also the only exporter for crude oil.

This disruption added to the high price of oil, as the future of crude oil rose by a percentage point to almost $ 89 per barrel, the highest since 2014, according to Reuters.

The 960 km (600 miles) Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline has been the target of attacks by the Kurdistan Workers ‘Illegal Workers’ Party (PKK), which is aligned against the KRG, and has faced a decade-long uprising against the Turkish government.

In October 2020, the PKK said it had attacked the pipeline in Mardin province, Turkey, near the Iraqi border.

Also in 2015, the pipeline was closed in the Turkish province of Sirnak after another PKK attack.

The shutdown has cost the KRG millions of dollars in losses every day, and has taken away its main source of income.

Turkey maintains a military presence in northern Iraq and regularly conducts airstrikes and ground operations against PKK forces operating outside the Qandil Mountains.