Kirkuk Haifa Oil Pipeline

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Kirkuk Haifa Oil Pipeline, also known as the Iraq Haifa Pipeline or the Mediterranean Pipeline, was a crude oil pipeline from the oil fields in Kirkuk, located in the former Ottoman vilayet of Mosul in northern Iraq, through Jordan to Haifa in mandatory Palestine, now in the territory of Israel.

Location

The pipeline runs from the the oil fields of Kirkuk, Iraq to modern day Israel.

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Pipeline Details

• Owner: Iraq Petroleum Company
• Current capacity:
• Length: 942 km / 585 mi
• Status: Retired
• Start Year: 1948

Background

The Kirkuk Haifa Oil Pipeline was operational between 1935 and 1948. Its length was about 942 km (585 mi), with a diameter of 12 inches (reducing to 10 and 8 inches in parts). It took about 10 days for crude oil to travel the full length of the line. The oil arriving in Haifa was distilled in the Haifa refineries, stored in tanks, and then put in tankers for shipment to Europe. The pipeline was built by the Iraq Petroleum Company between 1932 and 1934, during which period most of the area through which the pipeline passed was under a British mandate approved by the League of Nations. The pipeline was one of two carrying oil from the Baba Gurgur, Kirkuk oil field to the Mediterranean coast. The double pipeline split at Haditha (Pumping Station K3) with a second line carrying oil to Tripoli, Lebanon, which was then under a French mandate. That line was built primarily to satisfy the demands of the French partner in IPC, Compagnie Française des Pétroles, for a separate line to be built across French mandated territory. The pipeline and the Haifa refineries were considered strategically important by the British Government, and indeed provided much of the fuel needs of the British and American forces in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. The pipeline was a target of attacks by Arab gangs during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, and as a result one of the main objectives of a joint British-Jewish Special Night Squads commanded by Captain Orde Wingate was to protect the pipeline against such attacks. Later on, the pipeline was the target of attacks by the Irgun. In 1948, with the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the official operation of the pipeline ended when the Iraqi Government refused to pump any more oil through it.

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on the Kirkuk Haifa Oil Pipeline ([1]). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].