Monday, November 27, 2006
Oil storage tanks set ablaze in attack
Oil, Security
A mortar attack set ablaze oil storage tanks in northern Iraq on Monday, police said, and a source at the state North Oil Company said output from the region could be reduced for some time. There were no casualties in the attack on the oil facility at Arafa in the north of the city of Kirkuk, police said. The blast is another blow to Iraq's oil industry, crushed by decades of sanctions and war. The northern oilfields, clustered around Kirkuk, used to pump a third of Iraq's three million barrels per day oil output before the 2003 U.S. led invasion.
Since 2003 production has sagged to around two million bpd. Pipeline exports from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan are intermittent at best and Iraq's main refinery of Baiji, which runs on Kirkuk oil, is a target for insurgents. Pipelines from the Kirkuk fields first run south to Baiji and then northwestwards to Ceyhan and world markets. The North Oil Company official said the link to Turkey was unaffected. The North Oil Company official said pipeline exports to Turkey were running at 250,000-350,000 barrels per day when the line was functioning.
Since 2003 production has sagged to around two million bpd. Pipeline exports from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan are intermittent at best and Iraq's main refinery of Baiji, which runs on Kirkuk oil, is a target for insurgents. Pipelines from the Kirkuk fields first run south to Baiji and then northwestwards to Ceyhan and world markets. The North Oil Company official said the link to Turkey was unaffected. The North Oil Company official said pipeline exports to Turkey were running at 250,000-350,000 barrels per day when the line was functioning.
