BAGHDAD, 15 June 2003 — Iraq’s oil exports will be hit by Thursday’s pipeline blasts, US-appointed de facto Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban said yesterday. “It will affect export capability. It is a pipeline and any incident in a pipeline would affect exports, but it can be repaired,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Ghadhban did not say how much exports would be affected by the fire and explosions that hit the main oil export pipeline linking Iraq and Turkey on Thursday.
He also did not say how long it would be until the pipeline, whose flow has been halted since the US-led war on Iraq, was repaired. The blasts had been caused by a gas leak, not sabotage, US authorities in Iraq said on Friday.
Iraqi oil facilities, including the giant southern Rumaila fields, have been hit by saboteurs and looting. “We will handle the matter carefully and quickly,” Ghadhban said. “There is an incident in the pipeline somewhere near Baiji refinery. We are now assessing and evaluating the damage. I don’t know exactly how it happened, and why it happened, but we will do our best to fix it.”
Turkey said investigations were under way to establish whether sabotage was to blame for the blast in the Iraqi section of the pipeline in northern Iraq.
The 965 km (600 mile) pipeline from the Kirkuk oil fields to Ceyhan had a capacity of 1.1 million barrels per day before the war, and has not yet resumed pumping oil.
