Pipeline blast halts Iraq oil exports

Saboteurs blew up a giant oil pipeline in northern Iraq, halting oil exports to Turkey only days after they had resumed and cutting off vital income for an economy in shambles.

The new Iraqi police commander vowed yesterday to pursue the “conspirators” behind the attack.

Iraqi oil exports to Turkey had begun only on Wednesday, and the explosion early on Friday near Baiji, 125 miles north east of Baghdad, cut them off completely, acting Iraqi oil minister Thamer al-Ghadaban said in the capital.

Police Brig Gen Ahmed Ibrahim, once imprisoned for speaking out against Saddam Hussein, was appointed yesterday to be the top Iraqi law enforcement official. He blamed the explosion on “a group of conspirators who received money from a particular party”, which he did not identify.

“With God’s help, we will arrest those people and bring them to justice,” Ibrahim said. “The damage inflicted on the pipeline is damage done to all Iraqi people.”

Al-Ghadaban said it would take several days to get the pipeline working again.

“It is a large pipeline with large volume of crude oil,” he said.

The 600-mile pipeline has a diameter of 46 inches. It runs from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Turkish city of Ceyhan and handles all oil exports to Turkey.

“There is no oil flowing into Turkey right now,” said Col Bobby Nicholson, chief engineer for the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

Oil began flowing through the pipeline on Wednesday and Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency reported 750,000 barrels were pumped before it was attacked. Turkish officials had earlier blamed the pipeline troubles on “telecommunications problems”.

Iraq has the world’s second-largest proven crude reserves, at 112 billion barrels, but its pipelines, pumping stations and oil reservoirs are dilapidated after more than a decade of neglect. Northern Iraq, site of the giant Kirkuk oil fields, accounts for 40% of Iraq’s oil production.