Iraq Official: Basra Oil Exports Resume

BASRA, Iraq – Exports resumed on a limited basis at Iraq’s only functioning oil terminals Monday afternoon following a shut down for much of the day because of a power cut that darkened parts of central and southern Iraq, an official of the South Oil Co. said.

The official gave no other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Other officials said waiting tankers were being serviced by pumps on auxillary power at a rate much reduced from normal.

Exports through the country’s other main route, the northern export pipeline to Turkey, have long been halted by incessant sabotage.

Iraqi officials said sabotage was also responsible for Monday’s blackout, which prevented oil from being pumped into tankers waiting at berths.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that waiting tankers were being serviced at about one-third the normal rate of approximately 1.5 million barrels a day.

Port and oil company officials said pumping had ceased at 7 a.m. Monday.

A tanker agent with a shipping company in Jordan confirmed that exports from southern Iraq had ceased due to the power cut.

“Oil terminals have completely stopped exports from Basra and Khor al-Amaya,” said Mohammed Hadi, head of Iraq operations for Norton Lilly International. “Both terminals use the same power source.”

The supply disruption added to jitters on world oil markets, sending September crude futures up 35 cents to $65.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

With the power off for more than seven hours by late Monday morning, Mohammed Hadi, head of Iraq operations for Norton Lilly International, estimated the loss of revenue from exporting an average of 65,000 barrels per hour at $29.5 million.

Electricity was cut across Baghdad and many parts of Iraq early Monday after an attack on a major electricity feeder line between Beiji and the capital. Government spokesman Laith Kubba said Sunday the attack occurred two days ago, “and this will, of course, affect the power supply in Baghdad.” He said repairs were underway.

The power failure in southern Iraq occurred after a shutdown of the Khor al-Zobayr power plant outside Basra, the chief supply for Basra and the oil terminals, Hadi said. The failure there triggered other power plant shutdowns, Hadi said.

There was no electricity Monday morning in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, or the port city of Umm Qasr, Hadi said.

Exports from the northern oil fields around Kirkuk have long been interrupted due to sabotage on the pipelines. Officials at the Northern Oil Co., which runs the northern fields, said that every three or four months there is some limited pumping of about 250,000 barrels to the Ceyhan port in Turkey.

But no shipments are currently being made to Ceyhan, the officials said.

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Associated Press correspondent Jim Krane contributed to this report from Dubai.