Saboteurs blow up pipeline
2003-09-08 16:38
Iraq - Saboteurs set off an explosion on Monday at a local pipeline linking two oil fields in northern Iraq, a civil defense official in this petroleum center reported.
Commander Saleh Mohammed called the blast, which erupted near the Taaza electric power plant 15km south of Kirkuk, an act of "sabotage."
He said it hit a pipeline that connected the Janbur and Kirkuk oil fields and was part of the Northern Oil Company's network for the domestic market.
The explosion triggered a fire that blazed for 90 minutes before it was brought under control, Mohammed said. Electricity supplies were not disturbed.
Mohammed said plans to resume oil exports over the pipeline linking Kirkuk with Turkey's Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan would not be affected.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been the target of several attacks, the latest on August 30. Repairs will take several weeks, Paul Bremer, the US overseer, said last week.
The pipelines of Iraq, which holds the world's second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, have been hit by periodic sabotage since US troops ousted Saddam Hussein in April.
Bremer said last week Iraq was losing $7m a day in oil revenues as a result of a previous attack on the main export line to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
- AFP