Iraq Resumes Oil Exports via Pipeline to Turkey After Last Week's Bombing

Iraqi oil exports by pipeline from the northern Kirkuk fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan resumed after a bombing halted the flow of crude, according to an official for North Oil Co.

Flows in the pipeline returned today to their normal level of 450,000 barrels of oil a day, Imad Baqer, head of the Iraqi state company’s production department, said by telephone. The pipeline, which carries about a quarter of Iraq’s total crude exports, was hit by an explosive charge near the northern city of Mosul last Friday, he said.

Exports from the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline were also halted briefly in early July after sabotage by Kurdish rebels on the Turkish side, an official from the Turkish state pipeline company Botas said on condition of anonymity on July 5.

Attacks on the Iraqi side are more frequent. The pipeline runs through a region where al-Qaeda and other armed groups operate. Iraq, which has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude a day, according to Bloomberg estimates. Insurgents have targeted its oil installations since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Amman at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net

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