Iraqis celebrate in Basra after a curfew was lifted earlier in the week: the city is home to Iraq's main oil export terminal
Iraq works on pipe fix
Iraq hopes to complete repairs on a bomb-damaged oil pipeline in the south today, restoring about 100,000 barrels per day of output that has been shut in since last week, an Iraqi oil official said.
The attack last Thursday on a pipeline from the Bazargan oilfield forced the shut in and was the first to disrupt oil exports from Iraq's main southern Basra terminal since 2004.
"The crews have been working for three days to repair the pipeline and we expect them to bring it back to work later today," the oil official told Reuters.
Vessels at the Basra terminal load an average of around 1.5 million bpd. Iraq has minimised the impact of the attack on oil exports by using oil from storage at both the oilfields and at the terminal to compensate for the lost production, officials said.
"There has been some impact on exports but it hasn't had a huge effect," said one Iraqi official. "The security on the ground is getting better, things are getting better."
On Monday, an Iraqi officials said that both output and exports were down 100,000 bpd since the attack on Thursday.
The attack happened as Iraqi government forces last week battled Shi'ite militiamen in Basra, causing concern about the security of vital oil infrastructure in the region. Relative calm was restored on Sunday when cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordred his Mehdi Army militia off the streets.
Oil was loading onto vessels at Basra oil terminal at a rate of around 1.2 million bpd today, down from around 1.4 million bpd yesterday, two shipping agents said. Exports from Basra typically vary between 1.2 million bpd to 1.7 million bpd.
Exports in the north of Iraq continued to flow from the Kirkuk oilfields through a pipeline to Turkey, another shipping agent said.
Iraq was pumping at a rate of around 360,000 bpd through the line, he said. The rate has dropped from around 480,000 bpd yesterday. The shipper did not know what had slowed the exports.
Kirkuk oil in storage at the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan stood at around 4.5 million barrels, the agent added.