Iraq halts Kirkuk crude output after storage depot attack: source

Baghdad (Platts)--2Feb2006

Iraq's northern crude output stopped Thursday after insurgents fired a
mortar at the Northern Oil Co's main oil storage facility in Kirkuk, a company
source said.

     Pumping from the 700,000 b/d capacity Kirkuk oil fields to the NOC's
storage facility came to a halt after the attack, the source said, adding that
the attack was likely to reduce already constrained refining output and power
generation.

     Iraq's three major refineries are running at about 50-60% of their
capacity of 570,000 b/d. The country's largest refinery, the 310,000 b/d Baiji
refinery, receives it crude supplies from Kirkuk.

     Northern production in December stood at 300,000 b/d, while the month's
total for whole of Iraq was 1.81 mil b/d, down 110,000 b/d from November.
     The Kirkuk storage facilities are important for Iraqi exports to the
Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Iraq builds crude storage in Kirkuk
before pumping it in batches to Ceyhan. 

     Northern crude exports were suspended at the time of the attack.
     Further details about the attack were not immediately known. Insurgents
regularly target Iraq's oil infrastructure in an attempt to hurt the country's
export earnings and undermine the Baghdad government.

     On Wednesday, an oil pipeline was bombed and set ablaze near Muwailah,
some 60 km (37.5 miles) south of Baghdad. This attack also reduced electricity
supplies in southern Iraq.

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