Saboteurs hit Iraqi oil pipelines

The attack pushed the price of oil higher

Iraq's oil network has come under fresh attack, though it is not clear how badly supply was affected.

A cluster of pipelines was damaged on Wednesday in Barjisiya, south-west of Basra, officials said.

Some reports said the attacks cut the amount of oil carried by at least a quarter, but others said there had been little effect on supply.

An unnamed official is reported by the Associated Press as saying that output was cut by half.

World oil prices fell for the fifth day running despite the news from Iraq.

Saboteurs hit a pumping station at Barjisiya, which helps move oil from the Rumeila oilfields to terminals on the south coast.

'Bridge attacked'

Pictures showed huge clouds of smoke billowing from the area.

"At 2100 (1700 GMT), a device exploded under a bridge, which collapsed. Eight parallel pipelines, feeding the Zubeir 1 and Zubeir 2 oilfields were damaged," an official at the South Oil Company told the AFP agency.

Iraqi oil officials and shippers were quoted by Reuters as saying exports from the southern terminals at Basra and Khor al-Amaya were running at 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), compared to the average of about 2.2m bpd.

But Squadron Leader Spike Wilson, a British military spokesman in southern Iraq, said: "It's a minor pipeline, it hasn't impeded the export of oil at all."

The oil industry in Iraq has been repeatedly hit by insurgents hoping to undermine reconstruction efforts.

The south of Iraq has seen an uprising in recent weeks by Shia militias opposed to the presence of US and foreign troops in the country.