KIRKUK, Iraq, Aug 5 (AFP) - Northern Iraq's main pipeline connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Ceyhan came under fresh attack Thursday, while sabotage at a natural gas pipeline used by a power station was expected to interrupt electricity.
"An explosion occurred at 4:10 pm (1210 GMT) on the pipeline linking Kirkuk to Ceyhan but the fire was rapidly contained, since (the pipeline) was not working due to sabotage from two days earlier," Ardam Hussein, the head of firefighters for the Northern Oil Company, told AFP.
On Tuesday, a handmade explosive device blew up next to a network of pipes west of Kirkuk, forcing the shutdown of all exports.
The key northern artery had resumed work only two days earlier, following 10 months out of commission due to sabotage, and was carrying 200,000 barrels a day.
Hussein said insurgents had planted an explosive device around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Kirkuk, in the region of Fatha.
Meanwhile, a gas line linked to the Baiji power station, 200 kilometers north of Baghdad, was ablaze after a separate attack, said the director of the Northern Oil Company's gas division, Honer Najib.
"Firefighters are trying to contain the blaze but the sabotage is going to effect the production of electricity in Iraq," he said.
Najib said the pipeline also supplied a factory which prepares propane in Taji, 20 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital.
Repeated attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure have defied the interim government's efforts to increase exports and bring in much needed hard currency for the country's reconstruction.
The bulk of Iraq's oil exports go through tanker terminals on the Gulf, as the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had been shut due to a series of attacks and sabotage.
Exports from the southern oilfields have been running at up to 1.7 million barrels per day but have suffered periodic disruption in recent months, at least some of it the result of deliberate sabotage.