Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammad Al-Rashid on Saturday, September 1, announced that Iraq and Turkey are to revive a long-delayed gas pipeline project. "Serious measures have been taken concerning the management of the gas pipeline project and how to carry it out. A Turkish delegation is expected shortly in Iraq to revive the project," Rashid told reporters.
He was speaking after talks with Turkey's undersecretary for commerce, Kursad Tuzmen, who arrived in Baghdad on Thursday at the head of a group of Turkish businessmen. Baghdad and Ankara signed a deal in 1997 to build a 1,380-kilometer (810- mile) pipeline at a cost of $2.5 billion to carry Iraqi natural gas to Turkey.
Last November the Iraqi authorities said they were negotiating with firms from Turkey, France and Italy to carry out the project. "The project was halted for the past two years due to administrative measures following economic reforms in Turkey," Rashid said, adding it will be "seriously put back on track from now."
Baghdad and Ankara signed an accord at the end of 1996 under which Iraq would deliver up to 10 billion cubic meters (350 billion cubic feet) of natural gas a year from five gas fields in northern Iraq.
Iraqi oil exports are strictly monitored under a UN oil-for-food program that allows Baghdad, which has been under sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, to export crude to finance humanitarian imports. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
