Iraqi oil exports via the Basra Oil Terminal, the country's largest oil export facility, are down by 37 per cent after saboteurs damaged a pipeline in the south Sunday, disrupting supplies for the third time in less than two months.
According to The AP, two vessels, the Stena Congress and the Astro Cassiopeia, were loading at the Basra platform in the Persian Gulf at a combined rate of 42,000 barrels per hour, said three different shipping agents. The terminal was pumping 67,000 barrels per hour Sunday before the attack.
Fire crews and police from at least three nearby towns worked into the night to extinguish the fire near Musayyib, som 80 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.
Repairs to the pipeline should be completed by Tuesday, the shipping agents said, citing unidentified Iraqi oil officials.
The affected pipeline is where Iraq stores oil from its southern fields before piping it about 20 kilometres offshore to the Basra and Khor al-Amaya platforms, the agents said.
No vessels are loading at Khor al-Amaya after a vessel that had been loading there Sunday, at a rate of 17,000 barrels per hour, completed loading and left the terminal, the agents said, according to The AP.
Sunday's attack was the third in less than two months in the south, from where Iraq exports about 90 per cent of its oil. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
