Iraqi oil exports cut after insurgents target pipeline

INSURGENTS have attacked an Iraqi oil pipeline, setting off a huge blaze and slashing the country’s daily oil exports by around 25%.

Firecrews are still attempting to tackle the blaze, but Jabber Luyaibi, director general of Iraq's Southern Oil Company, said engineers had managed to divert oil to a second pipeline.

However, an official for the State Oil Marketing Pipeline said that the alternative pipeline was too small to handle the additional flow and that, as a result, Iraq's petroleum exports fell by 25% to 1.2 million barrels a day.