Iraq is expected to resume the flow of up to 480,000 barrels a day via its northern pipeline from Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey's Ceyhan port Friday after a four-day closure, an Iraqi oil ministry spokesman said Thursday.
Assem Jihad said technicians from the country's state-run North Oil Co. replaced a six-meter-long part of the pipeline damaged by an explosion early Monday morning near the restive city of Mosul.
Jihad has described the blast was an act of sabotage.
"They will test the pipeline later today and resume normal pumping on Friday," Jihad told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Baghdad.
Jihad said Wednesday that the pipeline would resume pumping in the next few hours but didn't offer an explanation Thursday for the delay.