NEWS

WASHINGTON, July 3 (HalliburtonWatch.org) - One of Iraq's two main oil pipelines in the south of the country was blown up Saturday by Iraqis opposed to the U.S.-installed interim government, reported Reuters. The attack, on Iraq's Faw Peninsula, cut oil exports by 50 percent to 960,000 barrels per day. In June, Iraqis bombed pipelines feeding both main terminals in the south and the main export pipeline to the north through Turkey, halting all exports from the country for about a week. Since March 2003, Iraq exports only 13 million barrels per day of northern crude through Turkey, reported Reuters. The pipeline and oil installation attacks are preventing Iraq from reaching prewar export levels of around 2.2 million barrels per day. Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told CNN that oil pipelines were attacked 130 times in the last 7 months alone, costing the country $1 billion in lost revenue. Halliburton's KBR subsidiary holds a $1.2 billion contract awarded by the U.S. government to repair Iraq's oil pipelines in the south of the country.