Pipeline blast causes huge Iraq fire

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7959945%255E1702,00.html

AN important gas pipeline had been blown up near Iraq's northern oil centre of Kirkuk, causing a huge fire, oil company officials said.

The head of the fire department at the Kirkuk-based North Oil Company, Jumaa Ahmed, confirmed an explosive device caused the blast on the pipeline, which transports gas from the Jambur oil field to the refinery in Baiji, 250km north of Baghdad.

The blaze was so big that its glow could be seen in the night sky from Kirkuk, 30km to the north of Jambur.

The explosion is latest in a long series of attacks against Iraq's oil infrastructure, blamed by the US-led coalition ruling Iraq on loyalists of toppled president Saddam Hussein and Islamic militants.

The gas pipeline fed the power plant in Baiji and Ahmed said he expected the city's refinery to experience production problems because of the fire
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[bluestateguy]

1. Hmmm

I guess the oil companies are finding out that Iraqi oil fields aren't the playground they were all cracked up to be.

[Karenina]

2. Ya know,

this is all so bizarre. Anyone remember the guy in Alaska that blew a hole in the pipeline and made a BIG MESS? And HE was just pissed, I mean in the sense of drunk. Didn't mean no harm. Now whatcha gonna do with someone who is ENRAGED and DETERMINED??? :shrug: There is NO WAY to secure a pipeline.

[Mal]

4. In hundreds of miles of empty desert?

OF COURSE there isn't.
Funny, isn't it? :-)

[Alpharetta]

3. I want my oil! The deal was blood for oil!

.

[frylock]

5. probably just a mechanical failure..

like all those choppers we keep losing.

[aquart]

6. We told them so.

Told them they'd never be allowed to have the oil.

Just because we made it easy for them to grab our mineral resources and other assets here in America, doesn't mean everybody is that dumb.