Iraqi oil exports secure after blast

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ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Oil exports from Iraq to a Turkish port were rerouted after a pipeline was attacked last weekend, an Iraqi oil company said.

Iraq's state-owned North Oil Co. confirmed that an attack along the southern Turkish border targeted an oil pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan last weekend. A senior official with the company told the Platts news service, on condition of anonymity, that oil exports from Iraq were rerouted to an alternative pipeline after the blast.

Turkish authorities said the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK, was likely behind the attack.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, though the PKK has targeted pipeline infrastructure in the past.

Turkish pipeline company BOTAS had said it suspected the PKK was behind a late May attack near the border with Azerbaijan, forcing the suspension of transit of natural gas through the South Caucasus pipeline.

The latest attack follows an announcement by the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq that an April ban on oil exports would end this week. The KRG said the measure was a "goodwill initiative" meant to encourage Baghdad to make good on "all outstanding payments due."

The KRG halted oil exports because it said Baghdad wasn't paying energy companies working in the Kurdish north. Exports should restart at around 100,000 barrels per day for one month.