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Iraq's largest oil refinery shut by bombing
BAIJI, Iraq, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Militants attacked Iraq's largest oil refinery on Saturday, killing four workers and detonating bombs that touched off a raging fire and shut down the plant in northern Iraq, officials said.In the southern town of Samawa, a second refinery was shut down by fire but officials said initial reports indicated it was started by a technical failure rather than an insurgent attack. The militants planted explosives at a kerosene and benzene production unit at the northern refinery in the town of Baiji, a former al Qaeda stronghold 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, the governor of Salahuddin province, Ahmed al-Jubouri, said. "The refinery has completely stopped," Jubouri told Reuters. "It's a big loss for the whole country. All Iraqi cities depend on its production." The blast, which happened before dawn, sparked a fire that was later brought under control, a police source said. It took about five hours and up to 50 fire trucks to contain the blaze. The damaged unit, known as the North Refinery, has a production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, a Baiji official said, adding the damage has been too severe to fix in few days. "Fixing the damage will take long time. We are not talking about days, the damage is too severe," said the Baiji official, who asked not to be named. "Hopefully in the next few days we can partially restart the refinery," he said, adding that the plant has enough stock to cover domestic needs for at least seven days. Iraq does not export any oil products as it uses all of its production for power generation and domestic consumption. Posted by: 2011-02-26 |
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