- (AFP) - An important gas pipeline had been blown up near
Iraq's northern oil centre of Kirkuk, causing a huge fire, oil company
officials said.
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- The head of the fire department at the Kirkuk-based North
Oil Company, Jumaa Ahmed, confirmed an explosive device caused the blast
on the pipeline, which transports gas from the Jambur oil field to the
refinery in Baiji, 250km north of Baghdad.
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- The blaze was so big that its glow could be seen in the
night sky from Kirkuk, 30km to the north of Jambur.
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- The explosion is latest in a long series of attacks against
Iraq's oil infrastructure, blamed by the US-led coalition ruling Iraq on
loyalists of toppled president Saddam Hussein and Islamic militants.
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- The gas pipeline fed the power plant in Baiji and Ahmed
said he expected the city's refinery to experience production problems
because of the fire.
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- The 300,000 barrels a day Baiji refinery is Iraq's largest
and newest refinery, built in the 1980s.
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- It is supplied mainly from the northern oil fields around
Kirkuk.
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- Jambur is one of the main fields in northern Iraq. Before
the US-led invasion it produced about 75,000 barrels a day.
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