Iraq's southern pipelines shut after attacks

Oil exports from southern Iraq have been brought to a complete halt following a spate of pipeline attacks launched by insurgents trying to undermine the interim government.

The southern pipelines account for 90% of Iraq’s and were not likely to resume for at least a week, two senior officials from South Oil Company said .

“Oil exports from the port of Basra have completely stopped since last night,” one said today.

No oil was being pumped through Iraq’s northern export lines to the Turkish port of Ceyhan either, according to an oil official. Those lines have also been repeatedly attacked in recent months.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi condemned the pipeline attacks, saying they were making ordinary Iraqis suffer.

“This is causing a great loss for the Iraqi people in terms of revenues, which could be used in the reconstruction of the country and to pay the people and get the economy back on track again,” he said.

A halt in southern oil exports costs Iraq more than €49.1m a day in lost income at current global crude prices.

Insurgents have launched repeated attacks on Iraq’s oil infrastructure in a bid to undermine the interim government and reconstruction efforts.

Firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr visited the Imam Ali Shrine in the city of Najaf for the first time since his militia left the holy site on Friday under a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting with US forces.

Al-Sadr had asked religious authorities for permission to enter the shrine, where his Mahdi Army militia had holed up during the violence in Najaf.