Exports of crude oil from northern Kirkuk oil fields have been on hold for the last three days due to an explosion at a key pipeline in Iraq, two Middle East shipping agents said Monday.
Exports of crude oil from northern
Kirkuk
oil
fields have been on hold for the last three days due to an explosion at a key
pipeline in
Iraq
, two
Middle
East
shipping agents said Monday.
"The pumping of crude oil from
Kirkuk
has
been on hold since Friday at 2300 local time," a shipping agent based in
Turkey
's
Ceyhan port in the
Mediterranean
told The Wall Street Journal.
A second shipping agent confirmed that the flow has been on hold.
Iraqi oil officials were not available to comment.
"We are hearing that there was an explosion at part of the export pipeline
inside
Iraq
,"
the first shipping agent said.
Iraq
normally exports an average of 300,000 to 350,000 barrels a day but sabotage
against the pipeline over the last few months, has reduced the flow. Last
month,
Iraq
exported 273,000 barrels a day via the pipeline due to damage to the pipeline
by unknown attackers.
Iraq
's
crude oil exports in May were down 5.4% to 2.480 million barrels a day, versus
2.622 million barrels a day in April due to bad weather in the southern oil
terminals in the Gulf and attacks on the northern oil export pipeline to
Turkey
, the
Iraqi oil ministry said in a statement Sunday.
The Iraq-Turkey pipeline that carries crude from
Kirkuk
oil
fields to Ceyhan has frequently been attacked, sometimes in
Turkey
but
mostly in
Iraq
. The
pipeline was idle for many years due to acts of sabotage after the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003.
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