Iraqi oil exports were halted for a second day while repairs were made on two sabotaged pipelines feeding the southern export terminals, shipping agents and an Iraqi official said today.
"Exports are still stopped," the official said. "We hope repairs on the smaller, 42 inch line will be finished by late tonight, then we might be able to resume loadings in a few days."
An independent contractor familiar with the situation said Iraq was having to shut down dozens of oil wells that feed the terminals so repairs could proceed on the pipelines.
Iraq had been shipping more than 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) from its Basra Oil Terminal in the Gulf, formerly known as Mina al-Bakr, before sabotage attacks over the past three days that blew holes in both pipelines to the terminal.
Sabotage also forced exports from the northern Kirkuk fields to stop at the beginning of this month. Iraq has been exporting what amounted to 200,000 bpd from Kirkuk through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Iraq's crude oil customers, some with tankers idling at the Basra terminal awaiting the resumption of supplies, are pressing for more clarity from Baghdad on when exports will resume and who will pay the mounting demurrage charges on their ships.
"SOMO (Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation) has no plans now to declare a force majeure," a SOMO official said. "We are trying to manage the situation and working to repair the pipeline. Hopefully we will be able to restart loadings soon."
Market sources say their Iraqi contracts stipulate that SOMO declare a force majeure if a cargo is not expected to load within 10 days of its anticipated bill of lading.