Iraq has halted oil exports through the port of Ceyhan in southern Turkey since the beginning of January for an unknown reason, a spokeswoman for the Turkish state oil and gas company BOTAS said on Tuesday.
"No oil tanker has come to Ceyhan since December 30 for loading," she told AFP in a telephone interview.
The spokeswoman explained that Iraq had continued pumping oil to the Ceyhan terminal for sometime after the departure of the ship on December 31, but had since interrupted the oil flow as all the storage tanks were full.
She added that there was no definite timetable for exports through Ceyhan. "Maybe a tanker will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday)," she added.
Iraq had resumed exports through Turkey at the end of December following the renewal by the United Nations of the oil-for-food programme after a pricing row.
It had re-started oil flow to the terminal of Mina Al-Bakr in the southern Iraq on December 13 after a 12-day suspension owing to disagreement between the United Nations and Baghdad which demanded that clients pay 40 cents per barrel into an account not controlled by the UN.
The humanitarian programme of oil for food, an exception to an embargo imposed against Iraq after it had invaded Kuwait in 1990, has authorised Iraq since the end of December 1996 to sell oil to obtain vital products such as food and medicines.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
