Maliki, Russians discuss Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline repair

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday discussed with a Russian delegation plans to repair the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline, which carried oil from Kirkuk to the Syrian port of Baniyas. “We hope that an agreement can be reached on repairing or replacing the pipeline,” Maliki said in a statement that was released by his office and received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The delegation included representatives of several Russian oil companies and the chairman of Russia’s Union of Oil and Gas Producers, Yury Shafranik. The delegates expressed their full readiness to offer assistance in the field of natural gas production. The Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline is a crude oil pipeline from the Kirkuk oil filed in Iraq to the Syrian port of Banias. The pipeline is around 800 kilometres (500 mi) long and the capacity is 300 thousand barrels per day (48,000 m³/d). The pipeline was opened on 23 April 1952. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq the pipeline was damaged by U.S. airstrikes and has been out of operation since then. On 17 December 2007, Syria and Iraq agreed to rehabilitate the pipeline. SS (S)/SR 1