Iraq says $5bn Basra pipeline will create 15,000 jobs

Iraq’s oil ministry expects the planned Basra-Haditha pipeline project to create 15,000 local job opportunities.

Mohammed Al Sudani, the country’s caretaker prime minister, last month approved allocating $1.5 billion to the $5 billion project.

Work was delayed due to a lack of funds, but the $1.5 billion has been disbursed, the state-run Iraq News Agency reported, quoting ministry spokesman Sahib Bazoun.

The remaining amount will be paid in installments, he added.

Bazoun said the pipeline route is “safer, faster and less costly” than maritime transport, with the volume of exports set to reach 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

The pipeline is being constructed under the oil-for-projects agreement signed by Baghdad and Beijing in 2019.

The oil ministry is also working to activate the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which will have a capacity of 1.6 million bpd.

“We are not replacing maritime transport, but it will be helpful in times of crisis, providing multiple export routes for oil,” Bazoun said.

Iraq, Opec’s second-largest oil producer, was exporting nearly 3.4 million bpd through Hormuz before the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.

Further reading:

• Iraq’s economic faultlines exposed by Iran conflict
• Iraq launches first phase of major gas project
• Iraq nominates banker for PM as cash crisis deepens