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11/02/2004:

"Oil Pipeline Blown Up in Iraq; Violence Kills at Least 12"

by Edward Wong
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 2 - Insurgents blew up a northern oil export pipeline today, dealing a severe blow to the national economy, even as car bombs and gun battles across the country left at least 12 Iraqis dead, Iraqi officials said.

The sabotage of the northern oil pipeline forced a shutdown of crude oil exports to a port in Turkey, Iraqi officials said. The pipeline pumps out 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil and is the frequent target of sabotage. Hours after the explosion, firefighters were still battling a pipeline blaze near the city of Kirkuk, where pipelines run from oil fields west to the country's largest refinery in Bayji and north to Turkey.

The attacks on oil pipelines, both near Kirkuk and around Basra in the south, where the oil fields are much more extensive, have had a devastating effect on the national economy. An Iraqi oil official in Baghdad told The Associated Press that the amount of crude oil in storage at the port of Ceyhan in Turkey was down to four million barrels, half of the port's eight-million-barrel storage capacity. American and Iraqi officials are relying on steady oil exports to help revive the stagnant economy in a country where the unemployment rate hovers at 60 percent.

Full Article: nytimes.com