Iraq oil exports reduced by half

IRAQ’S oil exports were still running at half their normal rate yesterday as instability due to an anti-US uprising prevented the reopening of a main pipeline feeding the country’s terminals in the Gulf.

For nearly a week, the unrest has kept Iraq from hitting its August export goal of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

An Iraqi oil official said it was impossible to say how long the threat from the rising would cripple oil sales, the country’s key revenue earner.