- Title: IRAQ: SMALL EXPLOSION DAMAGES OIL PIPELINE NEAR BASRA
- Date: 21st August 2004
- Summary: (U4)35 KM SOUTH OF BASRA, IRAQ (AUGUST 21, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLB IRAQI NATIONAL GUARD ING) GUARDING PIPELINE VALVE 0.05 2. CLOSE OF DAMAGED CONCRETE PROTECTIVE WALL WHERE EXPLOSION TOOK PLACE 0.10 3. VARIOUS OF GUARD GUARDING PIPELINE VALVE 0.27 4. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED WALL/ VALVE 0.43 5. SLV WORKER TURNING VALVE 0.50 6. CLOSE OF DAMAGED WALL/ PAN TO VALVE 0.59 7. VARIOUS OF VALVE 1.11 8. SLV GUARDS BY VALVE 1.17 9. VARIOUS OF OIL WELLS IN OPERATION - FIRES FROM ESCAPING GASES, NOT SABOTAGE 1.24 10. WIDE OF LINE OF OIL FLARES 1.31 11. VARIOUS OF OIL FACILITY (3 SHOTS) 1.45 12. WIDE OF LINE OF OIL REFINERY FLARES 1.53 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 5th September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: 35 KM SOUTH OF BASRA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA8DF705UJI8LEEN0YWZ7HGUUEO
- Story Text: Small explosion damages oil pipeline valve south of
Basra but oil flows not affected.
Iraq's oil exports were still running at half their
normal levels on Saturday (August 21) as a Shi'ite uprising
forced authorities to keep a main southern pipeline shut.
An official from the South Oil Company said staff and
operations at the state-owned company were still under
threat from the Mehdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers set fire to the company's
headquarters in Basra city on Thursday.
A small explosion caused minor damage to one of the
pipeline valves 35 kilometres south of Basra, although oil
flows were not disrupted further. An explosive device found
near part of the pipeline about 30 metres away was
successfully defused.
Oil prices eased from new highs on Friday (August 20)
as dealers pocketed profits from a long record-breaking run
after escalating violence in Iraq took U.S. crude close to
$50 a barrel.
U.S. light crude CLc1> fell $1 in late trade to $47.70
a barrel on profit-taking from a record $49.40 a barrel on
the last day of the September futures contract. It later
closed at $47.86.
Oil dealers fear further attacks by Sadr's Mehdi Army
militia on Iraqi oil infrastructure after Thursday's attack
on Southern Oil Company headquarters.
Mehdi Army officials in Basra have denied making
threats or having a role in the attack on the company,
which is responsible for the oil sector in the south.
Crude from southern oil fields to two offshore
terminals has been flowing through a secondary 42-inch
pipeline at one million barrels per day since saboteurs
attacked the main pipeline on August 8.
The main 48-inch pipeline was subsequently repaired but
operated only briefly.
The south accounts for all of Iraq's oil exports.
Sabotage has kept another pipeline running through Turkey
from northern fields mostly shut since the U.S. invasion.
Friday's oil price highs came after U.S. warplanes
pounded Iraqi militia in Najaf to try to quell a two-week-old Shi'ite
uprising, killing at least 77 fighters in 24 hours.
But oil prices fell amid confusion over the fate of the
rebel leader, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Reports late in the
Iraqi day were that police had failed to gain control of
the Najaf mosque occupied by Sadr and his followers.
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