Iraq oil flow down 100,000 bpd

Iraq's southern oil production and exports have been reduced by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) since a bomb attack on a pipeline on Thursday, an Iraqi oil official said on Monday.

Iraq aims to fully restore the flow of oil from the south on Tuesday, the official told Reuters by telephone. A problem at a pumping station from the Bazargan oilfield caused the disruption, he said. He declined to give further details.

A pipeline branch from Bazargan was damaged in the attack on Thursday.

"The decline in both production and exports has been about 100,000 bpd in magnitude," he said. "It started on March 27. The disruption will finish tomorrow."

An official from the Southern Oil Company (SOC) declined to comment. SOC operates the southern oilfields.

Iraq pumps about three quarters of its exports, or about 1.5 million bpd, from the Basra oil terminal in the south, which has largely escaped the persistent technical problems and sabotage in the north.

Militant groups and the federal government have fought for a week in southern Iraq and Baghdad, causing concern about the security of oil infrastructure.

Life appeared to be returning to normal in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr ordered his followers off the streets, but clashes continued in Baghdad.

The flow rate for oil pumping to ships loading at the main Basra terminal on Monday stood at around 60,000 barrels per hour, or around 1.44 million barrels per day (bpd), shipping sources said.

The size of the disruption was within the normal variance in the flow of oil to ships from the terminal. The pumping rate can vary from 1.2 to 1.7 million bpd, one shipper said on Monday.

The attack on Basra's oil pipeline system on Thursday was the first to interrupt exports from the south since 2004. It forced the temporary shutdown of three oil pipelines that usually pump around 1.5 million bpd to the Basra terminal.

An investigation showed severe damage to the smallest of the three lines that had been pumping around 100,000 bpd.

A lull in fighting allowed oilfield workers to return to work on Sunday, ensuring output in the region continued without disruption, an oil official said.