BAGHDAD: Iraq’s oil ministry on Sunday called for bids for the construction of a new pipeline to allow oil exports to resume from the northern province of Kirkuk to neighbouring Turkey.

The pipeline is to run for 350 kilometres (200 miles) and have a capacity of more than a million barrels per day, the ministry said.

It is to replace one built in the 1980s that was damaged in attacks by the Islamic State extremist group.

Iraq had exported 250,000 to 400,000 barrels per day through that pipeline before IS jihadists swept across large parts of the country and neighbouring Syria in 2014.

The new pipeline will replace a section of the route from oil-rich Kirkuk province, under Baghdad’s control since October, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

It will transport crude from the area of Baiji, in the province of Salaheddine to the south of Kirkuk, to the Fishkhabur border post with Turkey further north.

Foreign and local companies have a month to bid for the project, a quarter of which will be awarded to local companies, the ministry said.

Iraqi government and paramilitary forces moved in to take over Kirkuk and its oilfields after Iraqi Kurds in September voted for independence in a controversial referendum opposed by Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Gulf stock markets were down on Sunday as trading volumes were mostly low because of the absence of many foreign investors for Christmas holidays. Egypt rose to a record high but volume was very low there too.

But Saudi Printing & Packaging gained 1.3 percent after saying its board had decided to remove Ghassan bin Mohammed Zaatari from the post of chief executive and appoint Fahad Ibrahim al-Mufarraj as managing director pending the appointment of a new CEO. The company did not explain why it made the change.

Bahrain’s Al Salam Bank, the most heavily traded stock in Dubai, jumped 6.1 percent to 1.04 dirhams after a disclosure on the Bahrain exchange showed a key person involved with the bank had on Thursday bought 250,000 shares at 0.104 and 0.105 dinar. In Bahrain, the stock rose 1.0 percent to 0.106 dinar, equivalent to 1.03 dirhams.

Agencies