The rate of Iraq's crude oil exports from its southern terminal at Basra is still below normal levels, a pair of shipping agents told Dow Jones Newswires Friday, though a key bomb-damaged pipeline is expected back in operation by 1700 local time Friday.
"The loading rate is 50,000 barrels per hour," or 1.2 million barrels a day, an agent said by telephone from the terminal.
A second agent confirmed the figure. That is below the normal rate of around 65,000-70,000 barrels an hour, or 1.56 million-1.68 million barrels a day.
The agents didn't say why export flows remain lower than normal.
Oil prices jumped to more than $107 a barrel in New York early Thursday as factional fighting between Shiite militia groups in the south of Iraq and pipeline fires there threatened the country's oil exports.
At 0806 GMT Friday, U.S. light, sweet crude traded 48 cents lower on the day at $107.10 a barrel.
A bombing Thursday of the key Zubair-1 crude pipeline - the largest pipeline to the Basra export terminal - will likely affect exports "heavily," a South Oil Co. official said Thursday.
The senior official said Friday maintenance teams of the South Oil Co. are expected to complete fixing Zubair-1 later Friday. The 42-inch pipeline is one of two key pipelines that pump crude oil from the Zubair pumping station to the export terminal.
"They are expected to complete work on the pipeline and resume normal pumping around 1700 local time Friday," he said, with Iraqi security officials providing protection to the engineering teams.