DAMASCUS • Iraq is preparing to resume oil exports through Turkey in a few weeks through a new pipeline built in the midst of violence to help handle the flows, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said yesterday.

Crews have finished testing a 500,000-barrel per day pipeline covering a section of the northern export route and a special security force numbering thousands is being deployed to guard the network, Shahristani said.

“We have executed construction in a region practically on fire and we now have a bigger margin for manoeuvre as far as countering sabotage,” Shahristani said.

“The tests have been successful and the new security force is a different breed from the corrupt one of old,” he said on a visit to Damascus as a member of an Iraqi delegation negotiating improving ties with the Syrian government.

The pipeline runs from the oil centre of Kirkuk to the refining centre of Baiji, around 100 km southeast. Exports are initially planned at 300,000 bpd, rising to 500,000 bpd, the minister said.

Regular northern flows would raise Iraqi exports, which averaged 1.7-1.8 million bpd in July, to 2.2 million bpd. This is still less than 1990 levels, when crushing United Nations sanctions were imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait.

Sabotage attacks averaging two a week against northern export pipelines have all but stopped Iraq’s oil flows through Turkey’s Ceyhan port after the 2003 U.S. invasion that removed Saddam Hussein from power. Numerous attempts since to ensure smooth flows have failed.

Shahristani blamed the sabotage on rebels fighting the U.S.-backed government and al Qaeda operatives.

In the more stable south, Shahristani said Iraq is finalising talks to build a 100,000 bpd export pipeline from Basra to Iran’s Abadan port.

The project, which is scheduled to take a year to complete, has been delayed but meetings with the Iranian side are due to resume this month.