Oil flows along China-built pipeline in Iraq

A new oil export pipeline to connect the Halfaya and Burzugan oil fields in south Iraq to Fao, a port near the Persian Gulf, has started operation, one of the constructors, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), announced on Monday.

The pipeline, construction of which began in April 2013, stretches 272 kilometers and has a capacity of 5 million tons per year, CNPC, China's largest oil and gas producer, said on its website.

The company claimed that the pipeline is a "life line" and will fast-track the oil industry in Maysan Province, where the two oil fields are located.

It will speed up Maysan's economic development by at least three years and boost Iraq's crude export capability significantly, the company said.

The pipeline is a joint venture between CNPC and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), which is operating at the Burzugan oil field

CNPC said the new oil pipeline stretches through more than 300 rivers, 30-kilometer of mine field and areas with unexploded firearms.

The existing export pipeline for Maysan oil fields, which was built in the 1970s by the former Soviet Union, was damaged in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war and only has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.

In June, Iraq Sunni militants continue to engage in battles with government forces and push toward the country's capital Baghdad.

As more than 1,000 Chinese workers in northern Iraq were evacuated, Chinese enterprises in the south, including projects in Maysan, worked as usual.