BAGHDAD, Sept 4: Saboteurs kept up relentless attacks on Iraq's oil production system on Saturday, hitting pipelines in the north and south that disrupted internal supply, oil officials said.
Although the attacks did not further cut export flows, which have reverted solely to southern terminals after the northern pipeline was sabotaged two days ago, they exposed more gaps in security and further undermined the US-backed government's efforts to boost the crucial oil industry.
Flows from southern fields to the two Gulf offshore terminals were steady at two million barrels per day, although pipelines linking the Nahr Umr field to the Basra refinery and storage tanks were hit, South Oil Company officials said.
Flames could be seen rising from pipelines around 10kms south of the Nahr Umr oil field near the city of Basra. The field produces around 5,000 barrels per day.
In the north, saboteurs attacked a refined oil products pipeline near a region where the main crude export pipeline was blown up on Thursday, said Ahmad al-Ubaidi, a senior North Oil Company security official.
A bomb exploded underneath the products pipeline, which runs from the oil centre of Kirkuk to the Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji.
The export pipeline also passes through Baiji before continuing north to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The pipeline was still on fire on Saturday, although crews managed to build sand walls around it.
Northern exports were running at a postwar high of 600,000 bpd before saboteurs attacked the pipeline, which has been mostly shut since the US-led invasion.
Sabotage has risen over the past month, although the government worked on co-opting tribes along export routes and reinstated hundreds of former ruling Baath Party members, who were fired from the oil ministry after the war.
Exports from the south recently recovered after being cut when several pipelines in the region were hit.
Two tankers were loading at the Basra terminal, formerly known as Mina a-Bakr, at 68,000 barrels per hour, shipping data showed. Another tanker finished loading from the Khor al-Amaya terminal nearby.
TURKISH DRIVER KIDNAPPED: An Iraqi group has kidnapped a Turkish driver and threatened to behead him unless his employer stops working with US forces, Al Arabiya television said on Saturday.
The Dubai-based Arabic channel showed images from a videotape it had received, featuring a grey-bearded man sitting in front of a banner stating "the Islamic Resistance Movement, Nu'man Brigades".
"We warn all Turkish companies who deal with the occupation forces to stop. If the companies do not respond within two days from this announcement we will cut off the head of this man," one of three hooded men said in the videotape.
Identity papers displayed in the tape the man's surname as Soyadi. The kidnappers gave a first name of Medhat. The warning was also directed at a Kuwaiti company named "Al Safr", which worked with the man's Turkish employer, named "Al Inaya".
Iraq's government, working with US-led forces, is grappling with a hostage crisis, with guerillas increasingly kidnapping foreigners. Truck drivers have often been targeted. -Reuters
