New stoppage: on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which was out of action earlier this year after a sabotage attack
Bomb blast rips through Kirkuk link
A bomb attack in Salahuddin province damaged the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline, with repairs set to take at least four days, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said today.
The official, asking not to be identified, told Reuters a memo from the North Oil Company received by the ministry on Monday stated the attack had occurred between the village of Shirqat - a former hotbed of support for al Qaeda - and Baiji oil refinery on Saturday.
The memo was marked "secret and urgent".
"Four days ago a sabotage bomb attack caused damage to the strategic pipeline near Shirqat," Monday's memo read.
"Works are continuing to repair the damage. It's hard to determine when the flow will resume. It is expected the repair work will be finished in three to five days."
It is the second disruption to the flow through the Kirkuk pipeline in less than a month after a bomb attack near Mosul in late October stopped Iraq from pumping crude to Turkey's Ceyhan port until 2 November.
Attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure have become less frequent in the last year as violence in the country declined.
The Kirkuk pipeline typically carries 500,000 barrels of oil per day.