Turkey to Boost Security for Energy Infrastructure as PKK Attacks Rise

Rigzone ^ | Thursday, August 06, 2015 | Orhan Coskun and Humeyra Pamuk|

[Rabin]

Oil flow in the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, carrying Kurdish and Kirkuk oil to Turkey's southern port of Ceyhan, resumed on Thursday after a week-long shutdown following a PKK attack, a Turkish energy official and a shipping agent told Reuters.

[Rabin]

Mmm, uuu, ok, better. Somewhat better.

Rab.

[thackney]

Tiny excerpts make it hard to bring in any discussion.

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Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in mid-July it was stepping up attacks over what it said were ceasefire violations by the Turkish state. Attacks have become almost daily since Ankara began air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq on July 24, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called a “synchronised fight against terror”.

Other energy infrastructure has also become a target. The Azeri Shah Deniz pipeline and the Iranian pipeline, which carry a total of 16 billion cubic metres of gas annually, came under attack within the last 10 days.

Oil flow in the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, carrying Kurdish and Kirkuk oil to Turkey’s southern port of Ceyhan, resumed on Thursday after a week-long shutdown following a PKK attack, a Turkish energy official and a shipping agent told Reuters. “The risks for companies who are supplying to or through Turkey has increased quite a bit in the light of recent attacks,” according to one energy industry official in charge of pipeline operations involving Turkey.

With few hydrocarbon reserves of its own, Turkey purchases 98 percent of its natural gas and more than 90 percent of its crude oil from foreign producers. The imports, estimated at $61 billion worth in 2014, help to swell its current account deficit, which reached $45.84 billion the same year....

The Iraqi pipeline carries 650,000 barrels per day of Kurdish and Kirkuk oil to Turkey’s southern port of Ceyhan, the only export outlet for Iraqi Kurdistan....

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I don’t think their adding cameras will do more than quick notice of the attack, rather than preventing them. The mounted patrols seems like they would be more meaningful.