Iraq’s northern export pipeline via Turkey was damaged by a new sabotage blast over the weekend in another setback for Baghdad’s battered oil sector, a senior Iraqi oil ministry official said on Tuesday. The official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters Iraq was also facing what he called widespread “economic sabotage” along a pipeline from Iraq’s southern oilfields. “The Iraq-Turkey pipeline was sabotaged 36 hours ago,” he said. “It will take two weeks to repair if there are no new explosions and we still have several damaged areas on the pipeline that are still to be repaired from earlier explosions.” The bombing of the line from the Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan delivers a further blow to Iraqi hopes of raising crude exports, crucial to funding rebuilding. The country has been hit by a series of pipeline blasts since the end of the war that ousted president Saddam Hussein and has yet to reopen the Kirkuk line. Full Story
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