Second attack halts south Iraq oil exports

Saboteurs attacked Iraq’s embattled oil pipelines for a second day – cutting off all crude oil exports from the British controlled southern city of Basra.

The latest attack in Basra occurred just after midnight, said Samir Jassim, a senior official with the state-run Southern Oil Company.

He said it would take at least a week to repair the city’s two pipelines before exports at normal levels could be resumed.

“Due to the damage inflicted on the two pipelines, the pumping of oil to al-Basra oil terminal has completely stopped,” Jassim said. “Exports have come to halt.”

Saboteurs also blasted a northern oil pipeline, but did not disrupt exports, Iraqi oil officials said.

The blast occurred at about midnight in the oil fields near Kirkuk.

Iraq’s southern pipeline has been its main export artery ever since the US-led invasion.

Repeated sabotage attacks have forced the Iraqis to curtail shipments from oil fields in the north of the country, and most of Iraq’s crude exports now come from southern fields.