Kirkuk:
Kirkuk is an ancient city in Iraq, but is considered by some to be in Southern Kurdistan, sitting near the Hasa River on the ruins of a 3,000-year-old settlement. It is the center of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is located in the Iraqi province of at-Ta'mim.
The Kirkuk oil field was brought into use by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1934 and has remained the basis of northern Iraqi oil production, with over 10 billion barrels (1.6 km³) of proven remaining oil reserves, as of 1998. The facilities have been sabotaged at times during fighting between Iraqi forces and the Kurds.
The third major ethnic group of Kirkuk is Turkic Turkmen. Pipelines from Kirkuk run through Turkey to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea and were one of the two main routes for the export of Iraqi oil under the "oil for food" program following the Gulf War of 1991. This was in accordance with a United Nations mandate that at least 50% of the oil exports pass through Turkey.
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