Oil terminal shut after boat bombing

SUICIDE boat bombings targeting the key oil industry have forced the closure of Iraq’s biggest terminal, losing the country nearly one million barrels a day in exports, oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulloum said yesterday.

US military officials were trying to determine the launching point of the unprecedented suicide boat attack on two offshore oil terminals that are the sole outlet of Iraqi crude from the south. The attacks killed two US Navy sailors.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulloum told reporters that the Al-Basra Oil Terminal closed after Saturday evening's attacks and would open today, at the earliest.