Iraq plans new Kirkuk oil pipeline to Turkey

Iraq is planning to build a new pipeline to ship oil from Kirkuk to the Ceyhan port in Turkey, the oil ministry said on Sunday.

The new pipeline, which will replace a severely damaged section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, will start from the city of Baiji and span the Fish-Khabur border area with Turkey.

The territory where the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline operated was captured by the Islamic State group in 2014 and retaken by US-backed Iraqi forces over the past two years.

Earlier this month Iraq agreed in principle to export oil from Kirkuk to Iran, Iraq's Oil Ministry said on Friday.

The deal would see 30,000-60,000 barrels of oil exported to Iran's Kermanshah province.

In October, Kirkuk's lucrative oil fields were seized from Kurdish Peshmerga control by Iraqi government forces.

Peshmerga militias had held the oil fields in the disputed territory since 2014.

Iraq took military action to seize parts of the country's autonomous Kurdish provinces following a controversial referendum on Kurdish independence that took place on 25 September.