Bomb blast halts exports through Iraqi pipeline
Sept. 3, 2005
Reuters
KIRKUK, Iraq, - All exports of Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil through a major pipeline to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast were stopped today after a bomb blast set the pipeline on fire, an oil ministry source said.
"The blast halted all exports, it stopped them completely," the source told Reuters.
Although the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has a nominal capacity of close to 1.5 million barrels per day, throughput has typically averaged only around 200,000 bpd since the U.S. invasion of March 2003 because of frequent attacks on the line. It has also been closed for long periods.
Iraq currently exports around 1.5 million bpd, well down from pre-war levels of around 2.2 million bpd, with most going through the south of the country for export through the Gulf. Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves.
The pipeline was hit by an explosion early on Saturday and caught fire for several hours, a guard on the pipeline, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
The pipeline runs from the major northern Iraqi oilfield of Kirkuk to Ceyhan. The explosion took place near Fatha, between Kirkuk and the city of Baiji. The guard gave no further details.
Another guard said a roadside bomb had been placed beside the pipeline some 2.5 milesfrom Fatha, which is 60 miles southwest of Kirkuk.
By 2:30 p.m. in Iraq the fire had been extinguished, a fire department official from Iraq's North Oil Company told Reuters. But he added that oil leaking from the pipeline had spilled some 1.2 milesfrom the site of the explosion.
It was not immediately clear how long it would take to repair the line and bring it back to full capacity.
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