BAGHDAD - An Iraqi oil pipeline was on fire on Thursday following an explosion, the sixth in the country in two weeks, a senior Iraqi oil official said.

Two Iraqis ride their motorbike past black smoke and flames along a pipeline near Barwanah, 250 kms northwest of Baghdad. The pipeline which links the northern city of Kirkuk with the Hadithah pumping station to the west and which supplied a refinery and a power plant in the capital, was partially destroyed in an explosion. (AFP/Marwan Naamani)

"Early this morning another explosion damaged a pipeline near Al-Fatha near the River Tigris," Adal Al-Kazaz, director general of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Northern Oil Company, told Reuters. "I expect the incident to be another act of sabotage," Kazaz added.

He said the pipeline was carrying crude oil to Baiji refinery, 260 kilometers north of Baghdad and that the fire was still burning in the damaged pipeline.

It is the latest in a string of similar incidents hampering efforts to revive Iraq's battered oil sector.

Thursday's damage followed a blast on a crude pipeline on Tuesday near Barwanah. That pipeline carries crude to al-Daura refinery in Baghdad.

Kazaz said oil pumping had been suspended through the 0.375-inch pipeline near Barwanah, which links Kirkuk oilfields with Daura refinery in Baghdad.

He did not know exactly when the pipeline would be repaired but said it would take some time to fix it. It exploded and caught fire on Tuesday and this was blamed on unknown saboteurs.

"We need to clean the area from the leaked crude oil and after that we will start repairing it. Until this moment we are still cleaning the area of crude oil."

He said crude to Daura refinery was being supplied from Iraq's southern oilfields.

Iraq's de facto oil minister Thamir Ghadhban said on Tuesday the spate of attacks would hit crude supplies to refineries and electricity generation, but should not affect oil output, which is still around a quarter of pre-war levels.

The war-torn country resumed its first oil exports since the war on Sunday with a shipment from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, using barrels already in storage there.

© 2003 Reuters Limited

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