Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luiebi has ordered state-held oil and pipeline companies to begin restoring oil flows from Kirkuk to Turkish port Ceyhan via a pipeline that bypasses Kurdistan, increasing pressure on the breakaway region that voted for independence last month in a referendum strongly opposed and deemed illegal and invalid by the federal government. Al-Luiebi has asked North Oil Company, the State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), and Iraq’s state pipeline company to restore the pipeline to full operation, according to a statement on Iraq’s oil ministry website, as reported by Reuters . Iraq had mostly stopped shipping oil via the Kirkuk Ceyhan pipeline after Islamic State militants overran Iraq’s northern provinces in 2014. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have recaptured most of the oil infrastructure in the northern regions since then. According to Iraq’s oil ministry, the country hopes to restore exports from the pipeline to the levels before […]