- Title: IRAQ: EXPLOSION SETS FIRE TO PIPELINE SOUTHWEST OF OIL-RICH KIRKUK.
- Date: 3rd January 2005
- Summary: (U4) SOUTH KIRKUK, IRAQ (JANUARY 3, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/GV/CU: COLUMN OF BLACK SMOKE BILLOWING FROM PIPELINE ON FIRE; MORE OF BILLOWING FROM RAGING PIPELINE; VARIOUS OF PIPELINE ON FIRE (7 SHOTS) 1.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SOUTH KIRKUK, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA44SWOLT77BNGOV4KR68ILH2D6
- Story Text: An explosion set fire to a pipeline southwest of the
oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
An explosion ripped off a section of pipeline
running from the Kirkuk fields to the refining centre of
Baiji on Monday (January 3), witnesses said.
They said that they heard the blast and saw the
pipeline catch fire at a point just 60 kilometres southwest
of the city of Kirkuk, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Baghdad.
The overnight explosion southwest of Kirkuk set fire to
the pipeline, which runs from the region's oilfields to the
350,000 barrels per day (bpd) Baiji refinery.
It was not immediately known whether the northern
export pipeline was the target.
Iraq's northern oil exports remained idle for the third
week as sabotage wreaks havoc to the area's infrastructure,
oil officials said.
Attacks on Iraq's northern and central oil facilities
have badly disrupted refinery operations, and helped create
a fuel crisis and severe shortages of electricity.
The northern Kirkuk oil fields are producing 170,000
bpd for domestic use compared with a diminished post-war
capacity of 700,000 bpd.
Exports from the north through Turkey have been stopped
since December 18-19 following attacks against the
Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which can carry 500,000 bpd.
The pipeline has been hit several times since, further
hampering work to resume flows.
Sabotage has been intense since U.S. forces attacked
the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, near Baghdad, last month.
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