Rocket Strike Hits Kirkuk-Baiji Pipeline for Second Time in Three Weeks

On 7 February 2005, a rocket struck a cluster of pipelines near Al-Fatha, on the bank of the Tigris river, severing the flow of crude oil from Iraq's northern Kirkuk hub to the Baiji refinery.

A North Oil Company official, speaking without attribution, said the target was a 16-inch line that had already been put out of service by a sabotage attack three weeks earlier. That same pipeline is the main supply route for crude reaching the Baiji facility.

The Baiji refinery is central to Baghdad's electricity supply, making the Kirkuk pipeline one of the country's most sensitive pieces of oil infrastructure. Monday's strike was the second disruption to the same line in less than a month.

Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure had cost the country between seven and eight billion dollars in export revenue since the US-led invasion of March 2003.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in February 2005, in its own words.