Iraq's Troubled Pipeline Shut for Repairs

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gestures during his press conference, Thursday, July 6, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. Maliki vowed to clean up the 160,000-strong force charged with protecting the country's facilities and infrastructure from the influence of criminals and militias. Maliki said the Facilities Protection Service (FPS), founded during the rule of the US-led occupation authority in 2004 and later expanded, has proven "ineffectual and impotent" in preventing the attacks that have crippled the country's oil and power infrastructure. (AP Photo/Ali al-Saadi/pool) (Ali Al-saadi - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's sabotage-prone northern pipeline has been shut down for maintenance, halting crude oil exports from Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Ceyhan port, the oil minister said Sunday.

Hussein al-Shahristani said the flow is expected to resume in two to three days at an average of 400,000 barrels per day.

The pipeline was shut down Friday morning because there was not enough crude at Kirkuk reservoir, an oil official told Dow Jones Newswires on Saturday.

Regular insurgent bombings of the crucial northern export pipeline have idled it for all but a few brief periods since the war began.

Iraq resumed crude oil exports from the Turkish Mediterranean port last week after a suspension of almost a year. Since then, Baghdad has sold 8.6 million barrels of crude in its first three tenders, boosting overall exports for June to around 1.66 million barrels a day.

Iraq's May exports stood at around 1.5 million barrels per day.

Iraqi oil officials are upbeat about July exports, expecting them to reach 1.8 million barrels per day, the highest level since Baghdad resumed exports under U.S. occupation in 2003.

Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization, SOMO, issued a fourth tender for 6 million barrels of Kirkuk crude on Friday. Bids are expected by July 13.

Iraq, a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, sits atop the world's third-highest proven reserves. Its estimated 115 billion barrels are exceeded in OPEC only by Saudi Arabia and Iran.