Business News

Iraq resumes oil flow after pipeline blast in Turkey

Apr 5, 2012, 17:04 GMT

Kirkuk - Iraq on Thursday resumed oil exports to Turkey hours after a pipeline, running from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, was attacked, officials said.

'Pumping from Kirkuk to Turkey resumed Thursday afternoon after the Turkish side used a back-up system,' Hussein Gholam, the assistant general manager of Iraq's state-run North Oil Company, said in a statement.

He said a Turkish technical team had diverted oil flow to an alternative pipeline after exports were halted earlier in the day following an 'act of sabotage' in Turkey.

'They are now repairing the damage caused to the pipeline,' he said.

Rates of oil exports would not be affected, according to Gholam, who said that a reserve of 2 million barrels was held at Ceyhan.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which Gholam said had taken place in Idil in south-eastern Turkey.

The Turkish section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline was attacked in July 2010 and November 2008.

Responsibility for those attacks was claimed by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

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