Oil production at Iraq's Rumaila South oilfield has been temporarily halted after two bombs hit its pipeline network but exports have not been affected, Iraq's Oil Minister Adbul-Kareem Luaibi says.
Repairs to the pipelines were going ahead, but he gave no indication of when production would be back on line at the field developed by BP and Chinese CNPC.
"Two blasts hit pipeline networks transporting crude from Rumaila to Zubair storages. We managed to put out the fires and our crews have started repairs," Luaibi said.
Basra, which handles the bulk of Iraq's oil exports, has generally seen fewer attacks this year than other cities in the country following an overall decline in levels of violence since the peak of sectarian conflict in Iraq in 2006-2007.
BP said it had to stop some of the production from the Rumaila oilfield after Iraq's state-run South Oil Co. (SOC) requested it when the blasts damaged export lines.
"We have been asked to curtail some of the production from Rumaila. We understand from South Oil Company there may be damage to export lines outside of the field," a BP spokesman told Reuters.
Officials at the SOC said production units in Rumaila north were operating normally.
Sources at Basra oil police said fires were put out at 6am (local time) and initial reports showed that two bomb were placed under two pipeline networks.
"It's a terrorist act. We found evidence that bombs were used to blow up the pipeline networks," an oil police official at Basra told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Last June, a bomb attack on an oil storage depot near the Zubair oilfield in Basra set one oil storage tank ablaze, but caused no casualties. .
Rumaila, the workhorse of Iraq's oil industry, has estimated reserves of around 17 billion barrels and produces the bulk of Iraq's total output of 2.9 million bpd now.
