Iraq has suspended oil exports to the Turkish port of Ceyhan because of a production shortage in the northern fields of Kirkuk, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. The northern pipeline and facilities regularly are sabotaged by insurgents.

In the south, Iraq's oil output has fallen by nearly 190,000 barrels a day since Monday because of technical problems, said the Oil Ministry official, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
 
"There has been no pumping from Kirkuk to Ceyhan since Saturday and the pipeline won't be pumping until probably Thursday," the official told Dow Jones Newswires, adding that there was not enough crude to pump.

He said pumping has continued sporadically for the past two weeks. On Friday and Saturday, the pipeline pumped a total of 200,000 barrels, bringing stores of Kirkuk crude at Ceyhan export terminal to 2.2 million barrels.

Iraqi officials say the country's northern oil production has been averaging 500,000 barrels per day, of which about 380,000 barrels are being pumped to nearby refineries for domestic use. The remaining 120,000 barrels a day are kept in storage tanks at the pumping stations or at Beiji refinery.

Baghdad needs to fill its storage facilities in Ceyhan, whose capacity is estimated at 7.6 million barrels, before deciding how to sell the accumulated crude.

Persistent sabotage of the pipeline network and facilities has kept Kirkuk exports shut in for most of this year.

Meanwhile, production from the oil-rich south has fallen from 1.85 million barrels a day to 1.66 million barrels because the gas separation stations at the southern oil fields have failed, the official said.

Oil exports from the south have been averaging 1.4 million-1.5 million barrels a day.

The technical problems are not expected to impact exports from the south immediately, because oil is held in storage near the offshore oil terminals. However, if the problems persist, exports will fall, the official said.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies May 25, 2005)