Iraqi oil well blazes for 24 hours

Insurgents detonated explosives on an oil well in northern Iraq sparking a fire that raged for 24 hours before being extinguished, a senior Iraqi security official said today.

The attack was the latest on the oil industry, which is crucial in helping to fund reconstruction work in this war-shattered nation.

A pipeline in the southern Basra oil facilities was also on fire today, an official from Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation said.

Crude exports from the region were not affected, he said. It was not clear what caused the fire.

The blaze on the Northern Oil Company well in the Khabaz area, about 55 miles west of Kirkuk city, was started by explosives on Wednesday night, said General Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps chief in Kirkuk. It was extinguished late last night.

The well was not being tapped at the time of the blast and was not closely guarded, he said.

“This is a terrorist act. This is the first time an oil well has come under attack in Kirkuk,” Amin said.

He accused remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime of being behind the attack, but offered no proof. The attack “is a sign that some strategic locations will be attacked. So, we are going to tighten security on places that are considered national resources”.

Kirkuk is one of Iraq’s main oil producing regions. Rebels have targeted the oil industry in the country’s north and south, blowing up pipelines, killing oil workers and firing rockets at the oil ministry building in Baghdad.