Baghdad - The crude oil pipeline linking the Turkish port of Ceyhan with oil fields near the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk will remain offline for at least another week, an oil company worker said Thursday. "(We) continue to repair the damaged pipeline," an employee of Iraq's Northern Oil Company told the German Press Agency dpa, requesting anonymity, "But we will need another seven days."
Iraq's Oil Ministry on Tuesday announced that a bomb had knocked out the pipeline and had halted exports on Saturday.
The oil company employee said the pipeline carried between 350,000-400,000 barrels of crude per day to Turkey before the attack.
Iraq, home to the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, relies on oil exports for roughly 85 per cent of its government revenue.
In October, Iraq exported an average of 1.87 million barrels per day, for 4.2 billion dollars in revenue.
