Iraq oil exports unaffected after bombing

BAGHDAD: Iraq's oil exports will not be affected by a bomb attack on a southern crude pipeline network on Tuesday, an oil ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We have enough storage until we repair these pipelines. We will bypass the oil pumping operations through another pipeline network until repairs are done," spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters. It will take a week or less to repair the damage done to the pipelines, he said.

Three bombs hit an oil pipeline operation that transports crude from southern Iraqi oilfields to storage tanks around the oil hub of Basra, causing a fire that raged all night and was put out on Wednesday morning.