Iraq north pipeline to stay closed for months-U.S.

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO640214.htm

BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's northern oil export line to Turkey, vital to Baghdad to maximise revenues and rebuild the country, will take months to restart as repairs are carried out and security is tightened, the U.S. Army said on Monday.

"It will take months before the Iraq-Turkey pipeline can start working again because several factors have to be coordinated such as repairs and security," said Richard Dowling, a spokesman for the Restore Iraqi Oil directorate of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which works with the Iraqi oil ministry. snip

Iraqi officials had hoped security along the pipeline would improve enough to allow shipments from the giant Kirkuk oilfields to restart this spring. But sabotage has not abated. The pipeline opened for a few days last year but was closed by another sabotage attack.

Oil industry officials said on Sunday that there had been 40 attacks on the pipeline in the last three to four months, steady with previous levels of sabotage that has hit the oil industry since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April.

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[pfitz59]

1. Rent-a-cop every hundred yards.........

Surely the cost of oil will go down?