An explosion of undetermined origin targeted a gas pipeline in southern Iraq on Saturday, October 31, killing two people. The event comes a few days after the attack on Wednesday against an oil pipeline that forced the Iraqi Kurdistan region to halt its oil exports, according to the authorities.
Wednesday’s explosion, in Mouthanna province, “Killed two children and injured twenty-eight people”, reported the official Iraqi agency INA. “An investigation is underway to determine the causes”, she added, citing Governor Ahmed Manfi.
On Friday evening, the government of the autonomous region of Kurdistan (north) announced in a statement that it had suspended its crude exports after “Terrorists” attacked the pipeline crossing Kurdistan to reach the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The statement does not specify whether the explosion took place on its soil or on Turkish soil and does not accuse any party in particular.
One of the most oil-dependent economies in the world
The Kurdish-built pipeline has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day, but the export of Kurdish-controlled oil currently averages 300,000 barrels a day, due to cuts demanded by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Iraq, the second-largest producer in the cartel, is one of the most black gold dependent economies in the world. An interruption in the delivery of hydrocarbons by the pipeline leading to Ceyhan means a sudden stop in the inflow of money, in a country where more than 90% of public revenues come from oil.
