Two killed as explosions hit Iraqi gas and oil pipelines

Blast shuts gas pipeline in south after ‘terrorists’ attacked oil pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey

Excess gas is burnt off at a pipeline at the Rumaila oilfield in Basra, southern Iraq. Reuters

Two children were killed at least 28 people injured in a gas pipeline explosion in southern Iraq after a blast forced the closure of an oil pipeline running from the northern Kurdistan region.

The gas pipeline blast occurred on Friday night near the southern city of Samawa, 270 kilometres south of Baghdad, and firefighters managed to contain the fire after shutting down the gas line, police said.

The explosion killed two children and injured 28, including nine Shiite paramilitary fighters, the military said in a statement released on Saturday. The causes of the explosion is still unknown, it said.

The pipeline extension passes a camp for an Iraqi militia force near Samawa, police sources told Reuters.

Iraqi energy officials said the domestic line feeds gas from southern fields to power stations in some southern cities and a key power station near Baghdad. There was no effect on Iraq’s gas production and processing operations, officials said.

The explosion came after a blast targeted an oil pipeline in the north of the country on Wednesday evening, according to a statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government released late on Friday.

The KRG said oil exports had been suspended after “terrorists” attacked the pipeline crossing the autonomous region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

It did not specify on whose territory the explosion took place nor who might have been behind it.

The pipeline built by the Kurds has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day, but exports of oil under their control currently averages 300,000 bpd as demanded by Opec.

Nearly 90 per cent of the Iraqi government’s budget comes from oil revenues.