- Title: IRAQ: OIL FIRE CONTINUES TO RAGE AFTER SABOTEURS BLOW UP PIPELINE.
- Date: 22nd June 2003
- Summary: (W7) HIT, ABOUT 140 KM NORTHWEST OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 22, 2003) (REUTERS) *** EVENING SHOT ** 1. VARIOUS OF BURNING PIPELINE (8 SHOTS) 0.46 2. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) NAJI HAMMED LOCAL TRUCK DRIVER, SAYING: "If the United States wanted to take advantage of this oil they would have controlled the fire by now. The fire has been burning since 1100 (0700gmt) last night until this minute." 1.01 3. MCU/LV: ONLOOKERS LOCALS; CLOUD OF BLACK SMOKE (2 SHOTS) 1.14 *** NIGHT SHOT *** 4. VARIOUS: VARIOUS NIGHT SHOTS OF FIRE (5 SHOTS) 1.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th July 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HIT, ABOUT 140 KM NORTHWEST OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA6L3H8172XPI855OZ72CHD6O44
- Story Text: An oil fire has continued to rage into the night after
saboteurs blew up a vital pipeline, threatening supplies to
Baghdad's main refinery and fresh torment for drivers in the
capital.
The oil fire at an Iraqi fuel pipeline in the desert
near Hit has continued to rage late on Sunday (June 22) after
a U.S. patrol reported it about an hour before midnight.
A Reuters correspondent at the scene said orange fireballs
and thick black smoke were billowing from the damaged pipeline
near a metal pylon more than 12 hours after the blast.
He said no U.S. troops or Iraqi officials were on the spot
and no attempt was being made to extinguish the blaze. A U.S.
military spokesman said earlier that efforts were under way to
put out the fire. He had no word on its cause.
"If the United States wanted to take advantage of this
oil they would have controlled the fire by now. The fire has
been burning since 1100 (0700gmt) last night until this
minute," a local truck driver said in front of the blazing
pipeline.
It was the second major fire to damage Iraqi pipelines
this month. U.S. officials blamed the first on gas leaking
from the main export pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields to
Turkey.
The oil pipeline at Hit, with a gas pipeline alongside it,
was built in the 1980s to connect Iraq's southern and northern
oilfields, enabling exports to flow smoothly.
An Oil Ministry official said any disruption to the oil
pipeline could hit Baghdad's main refinery of al-Doura,
forcing it to rely on crude from the south, where oil
facilities are in bad shape.
The refinery at al-Doura serves a city whose five million
people have barely had time to forget the misery of petrol
queues that snaked through sweltering streets for weeks after
U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein on April 9.
Iraq, which exported around two million barrels per day
(bpd) before the U.S.-led war, relaunched oil sales on Sunday
from eight million barrels stored in Turkey.
A Turkish tanker loaded a million barrels of oil bound for
Turkish refineries from the Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan.
De facto oil minister Thamir Ghadhban said on Saturday it
would take 18 months -- and well over $1 billion -- to restore
pre-war production capacity of three million bpd.
Postwar looting and sabotage at oil facilities have
delayed the resumption of Iraq's oil exports and will keep
shipments well below pre-war levels for several months,
officials say.
Iraqi oil pipelines and installations are spread over vast
swathes of sparsely populated desert that is hard to patrol.
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