KIRKUK, Iraq, Sept 4 (AFP) - A key Iraqi oil pipeline to Turkey was still ablaze Saturday following a huge attack that halted all exports from the northern fields around Kirkuk, an official for the state-owned North Oil Company (NOC) said.
"The repair work could last up to seven days," NOC security official Ahmed Hassan Ghafif told AFP.
"Internal pipelines are working but the pipeline exporting crude to Turkey is still out of order. The blaze has been extinguished up to 70 percent but the oil will continue to burn today and maybe until tomorrow," he added.
Saboteurs exploded a bomb on the strategic pipeline Wednesday night by the town of Riyadh, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kirkuk. NOC moved immediately to shut down the pipeline, which had been pumping at 600,000 to 800,000 barrels per day.
Pipeline sabotage has cost Iraq more than a billion dollars in lost revenues.
Exports from the Kirkuk fields had been brought to a virtual standstill for well over a year, putting all the burden of exports on Gulf tanker terminals serving Iraq's southern oilfields before NOC resumed pumping to Turkey last month.