Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA)

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Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA), also known as Iraqi–Saudi Oil Pipeline (Arabic: خط انبوب النفط العراقي السعودي), is a mothballed oil pipeline, running from Al-Zubair district in Basra, Iraq to Al-Mu’ajjiz terminal on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. It was taken out of operation in 1990.

Location

The pipeline runs from Basra governorate, Iraq to Mu'ajiz terminal on the Red Sea, north of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia.

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Project Details

• Operator: Saipem(Italy) Spiecapag(France)
• Owner: Saudi Aramco
• Parent Company: Iraqi Government& Saudi Arabia Government
• Capacity: 1,650,000 barrels per day
• Length: 1568 Kilometers
• Diameter: 48, 56, 42 inches
• Status: Mothballed
• Start Year: 1987

• Cost: $2.25 billion
• Financing:
• Associated infrastructure:

Background

The Iraq Pipeline through Saudi Arabia (known as IPSA) travels through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea Port of Mu'ajiz, just north of Yanbu. IPSA has suffered several closure as a result of wars and other political events and has been out of operation since the Gulf crisis. IPSA has a design capacity of 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd). The pipeline extending 1568km from Al-Zubair in Iraq to Yanbu in Saudi Arabia. It has two sections. the first section is 615 km with a 48-in diameter. The second is, 863 km with a 56-in diameter, and 90 km with a 42-in diameter.

History

IPSA was laid in the 1980s in order to diversify export routes after oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. However it has not carried Iraqi crude oil since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, causing relations between the two countries to deteriorate. Saudi Arabia confiscated the pipeline in 2001 as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad and from then until 2012 had only used the line to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country.

According to former Iraqi Oil Minister Issam al-Chalabi, no attempts were made to recover the pipeline system following the 2003 invasion, and political relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia remained sour.

In September 2003, unnamed official sources stated that Saudi Arabia had decided to reopen the IPSA pipeline to allow Iraqi oil to be exported from the country's southern oilfields to Yanbu. However by October of the same year, a Saudi Aramco official stated that Iraqis "don't know what they are talking about... the pipeline is not in a usable form because of its long-term and sudden closure."

In December 2011, after Iranian authorities threatened to close the Persian Gulf to international oil trade, consideration of alternative export routes to the Strait of Hormuz led to renewed discussion about the various oil pipelines that run across Saudi Arabia. The IPSA pipeline and the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (also known as Tapline) could carry the equivalent of up to 2 million bpd to ports on the Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts. Nonetheless Iraq's security concerns, which include protection of threatened oil infrastructure and reserves, would also need to be considered before any decision to reopen the IPSA pipeline could be suggested as a viable option, according to reports by Reuters.

In September 2017 it was reported that moves towards improved Saudi-Iraqi relations was raising the possibility of Iraq regaining access to the IPSA pipeline.