Iraq Monday afternoon resumed exports of its Kirkuk crude oil via a northern pipeline to Turkey's Ceyhan port, after a one-day halt, a shipping agent at the Mediterranean terminal said Tuesday.
"They resumed pumping around 1500 local time (1300 GMT) Monday," the agent told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Ceyhan. The flow stopped Sunday on a minor breakdown.
The agent said the flow was resumed at a rate of 20,000 barrels an hour, or 480,000 barrels a day. Stocks of Kirkuk crude oil at storage facilities in Ceyhan reached 3.1 million barrels, he said.
Exports through the northern pipeline are usually interrupted by acts of sabotages or technical faults. Northern exports have been sustainable since September last year. Before that the pipeline was idle for most of the time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Iraq exports the bulk of its produced crude oil from southern oil terminals, selling around 1.6 million barrels a day.