Iraqi oil exports through Persian Gulf terminals that ship most of the country's crude have been cut by as much as 50 per cent for a third day because of damage to a pipeline, shipping agents said.

Loading fell to 41,000 barrels an hour from about 80,000 barrels an hour before the rupture in a pipeline near Al Faw, south of Basra city, on Saturday, said two shipping agents and an official from a company that inspects oil cargoes for traders. The officials asked not to be identified.

Brent crude oil futures rose to a two-week high in electronic trading on London's International Petroleum Exchange after the loss of supplies. South Oil Co workers are repairing the damage, Director-General Jabbar al-Leaby said. He couldn't say what caused the damage or how long it will take to repair.

"We are working on the pipeline," said al-Leaby, who runs the Oil Ministry unit responsible for producing and transporting crude in the southern half of the country.

Dhia al-Bakka, director-general of the State Oil Marketing Organization, and Mike Stinson, the senior US consultant to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, don't answer their mobile phones. Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry, couldn't be reached on his mobile.

Brent crude oil for August settlement rose as much as 73 cents, or 2 per cent, to US$36.65 in after-hours electronic trading on London's International Petroleum Exchange as of 8:52 am in London.

One vessel, the Phoenix Voyager, is loading at the Basra Oil Terminal, the larger of the two facilities, at a rate of 41,000 barrels an hour, said the agents. That compares with a combined rate of 80,000 barrels an hour at the Basra and Khor al-Amaya platforms before Saturday. No vessels are loading at Khor al-Amaya, the agents said.

The damage to the pipeline may have been caused by the failure of repairs following earlier sabotage, the agents said.

The agents and Reuters news agency had said that the pipeline had been sabotaged.

The affected pipeline is near Al Faw, where Iraq stores oil from its southern fields before piping it about 19 kilometers (12 miles) offshore to the Basra and Khor al-Amaya platforms, the agents said.

(China Daily 07/06/2004 page12)