LONDON (Dow Jones)--Oil shipments from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields into the Turkish Mediterranean export terminal of Ceyhan are on hold for the fifth consecutive day, a local shipping agent said Thursday at 1100 local time (0900 GMT). Flow along the pipeline stopped Sunday, the agent said after intermittent flow the previous week.
The agent said total inventories of loadable Kirkuk crude available at Ceyhan now stand at around 0.45 million barrels.
"The main concern is to see just 450,000 barrels loadable, and vessels approaching Ceyhan," says one trader of Mediterranean crude, "if they don't restart soon there will be ships waiting for crude."
The Aegean Faith vessel is scheduled to lift crude at the terminal Saturday, the shipper said, with the MT Domus Aurea to load Jan. 23.