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Iran seals pipeline agreement with Iraq

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-23 22:10

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's official news agency says Tehran has reached an agreement with Iraq to build a pipeline that will feed Iraqi crude to an Iranian refinery.

The agreement marks another step in strengthening relations between two majority Shiite countries that fought a deadly eight-year war in the 1980s. The post-Saddam Hussein era rapprochement has worried some in the West.

Thursday's IRNA report has quoted Iran's deputy oil minister, Noureddin Shahnazizadeh, as saying a 32-inch pipeline will feed 50 percent of the crude to be processed at Iran's Abadan refinery.

The plant has a daily capacity of 430,000 barrels per day and sits about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from Iraq.

The refinery was destroyed during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war but was later rebuilt.