UPDATE: Rosneft, Iraqi Kurdistan eye gas pipe for exports to Turkey, Europe

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MOSCOW, Sep 18 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Rosneft and Iraqi Kurdistan plan to launch a pipeline for gas exports to Turkey and Europe in 2019, Rosneft said in a statement Monday.

“The sides have held talks on the company’s (Rosneft’s) possible participation in a project to finance construction of gas transport infrastructure of Iraqi Kurdistan. A separate agreement on this project is expected to be signed by the end of the year,” Rosneft said.

“The Kurdistan regional gas pipeline will not only ensure supplies of natural gas to the region’s electric power plants and factories, but will provide a possibility to export a significant volume of fuel to Turkey and the European market in the coming years,” the statement said.

Investments in the gas infrastructure project are expected to be made on the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) principle.

The pipeline’s throughput capacity is expected to ensure exports of 30 billion cubic meters per year in addition to supplies to main internal consumers.

Rosneft and Kurdistan are discussing a possibility to speed up implementation of the gas pipeline system project. The project encompasses the launch of the pipeline and first supplies to internal consumers in 2019, while exports are slated to start in 2020.

Rosneft also plans to finish developing necessary final documentation on a project of an export oil pipeline in Kurdistan in the near future, it said.

Khoshavi Babakr, a representative of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Russia, told PRIME that the gas pipeline built with Rosneft’s assistance will be likely integrated with the Southern Gas Corridor.

“As far as I know, under this project Rosneft’s gas pipeline will be linked with projects from Azerbaijan,” Babakr said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is project of expansion of the current South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) gas pipeline in Turkey. It encompasses transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. First supplies to Turkey are slated to start in 2018, to Europe – in 2019.

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