Talks underway to reopen Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline: Iraq
A worker checks the valve gears of pipes linked to oil tanks at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ), some 70 km (43.5 miles) from Adana, Feb. 19, 2014. (Reuters Photo)


The Iraqi Oil Ministry announced on Wednesday that Iraq and Turkey are going to reopen the 970-kilometer-long (603-mile-long) pipeline that transports Iraqi crude from Kirkuk to export facilities in Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

The ministry’s statement came after the Iraqi oil minister Ihsan Abduljabbar Ismail and Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad Ali Riza Güney met in Baghdad to discuss plans "to rehabilitate the strategic pipeline to transfer crude oil" from the Gulf to Europe.

The Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, also known as the Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline, is a 970-kilometer-long pipeline that runs from Kirkuk in Iraq to southern Ceyhan in Turkey. It is Iraq's largest crude oil export line.

The pipeline had been exposed to intensive attacks by the Daesh terrorist group and the attack in 2014 caused the Iraqi side of the pipeline to be closed.