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  • Oct 25th, 2005
  • Comments Off on Basra oil terminal still shut on bad weather
Loading operations at Iraq's Basra oil terminal were suspended on Monday but could resume later on in the day, as the weather starts to improve after sandstorms and wild seas forced it to shut on Friday, shipping sources said.

"As of this morning we have been informed that the terminal remains closed," a shipping manager based in Umm Qasr said.

"But the weather is improving, and we have already started to send out the tugs to the terminal, so we should see berthing operations, at least resume later today," the manager said.

A shipping agent said the loadings were still at a standstill at 13.43 pm (1043 GMT). He expected loadings to restart early evening when the weather cleared.

High seas and thick dusts have halted oil loadings from Iraq's main Basra terminal since Friday, with seven large oil tankers still anchored and waiting to load. Another two oil tankers were fully loaded and awaiting orders to sail.

The terminal was pumping about 84,000 barrels per hour before the bad weather began, sources had said.

Iraq has relied on its Basra Oil Terminal to ship crude since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Repeated sabotage along the northern Iraq-Turkey pipeline has kept that export route mostly idle.

Copyright Reuters, 2005


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