BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb damaged an oil pipeline near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, sending plumes of black smoke and fire up into the air, officials said on Thursday. The bomb, which exploded late Wednesday, was placed beneath the aboveground pipeline, which connects the Bay Hassan oil fields with Kirkuk in northern Iraq, said police Brig. Sarhad Qadir.Officials in Iraq’s Northern Oil Company said the heavily damaged pipeline would be repaired within five days.
The International Monetary Fund reported last month that oil production in Iraq was likely to reach only 2 million barrels a day over the year, down from its earlier estimate of 2.4 million barrels because of the continuing sabotage of oil installations and the resulting halting of oil exports from the north.
Iraq’s current oil exports of about 1.6 million barrels a day mostly go through its southern ports, which have suffered far fewer insurgent attacks than the main pipeline to Turkey in the north. Currently, Iraq’s government doesn’t have the money it needs to rehabilitate and upgrade an oil industry infrastructure that has fallen apart during two decades of wars, misuse by Saddam Hussein’s government and international trade sanctions.