Saboteurs blew up a section of a northern domestic pipeline feeding Iraq's biggest refinery at Baiji on Monday, oil officials said. Crews managed to put out the fire, about 15 miles (25 kilometres) southwest of Kirkuk. The attack did not affect exports, which are flowing at 2.0 million barrels per day (bpd). A fire later broke out near the 350,000 bpd Baiji refinery. Witnesses said the fire was in another pipeline and was caused by a blast, but oil officials said there were no reports of an explosion and the pipelines there were safe, adding it might have been pools of waste oil burning and not the pipeline. The northern export pipeline passes near the area. Officials at the state North Oil Company said export flows to Turkey's Ceyhan port were running normally at 300,000 bpd. Iraq could export up to 600,000 bpd through the northern pipeline, depending on its condition and the levels of storage tanks at Ceyhan. In the south, offshore Gulf termninals movement was normal with two tankers loading at the Basra offshore terminal, formally known as Mina al-Bakr, a shipping agent said. The tanker Marcos was loading at the rate of 25,000 barrels per hour and the Apollo at 46,000 barrels per hour. Three tankers were waiting to load, including one at the nearby Khor al-Amaya terminal.
