By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press WriterTue Jun 13, 5:38 AM ET
Oil exports from Iraq's northern fields have resumed more than four months after insurgents sabotaged twin pipelines carrying Iraqi crude to Turkey, oil officials said Tuesday.
Iraq began pumping oil on Saturday and it is currently pumping around 21,000 barrels a day — just a trickle of the pipeline's full capacity, said oil officials in Turkey who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the media. Together the parallel pipelines can carry 1 million barrels a day.
Iraq briefly resumed pumping crude via the pipeline twice in January. But the pipeline was soon sabotaged, halting shipments.
Persistent sabotage of oil facilities by insurgents and operational problems have kept the northern export pipeline shut down for most of this year and 2005.