Attack-prone pipeline now shut for repairs

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's sabotage-prone northern pipeline has been shut down for maintenance, halting crude oil exports from Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Ceyhan port, the oil minister said Sunday.
Hussein al-Shahristani said the flow is expected to resume in two to three days at an average of 400,000 barrels per day.
The pipeline was shut down Friday because there was not enough crude at Kirkuk reservoir, an oil official told Dow Jones Newswires on Saturday.
Regular insurgent bombings of the crucial northern export pipeline have idled it for all but a few brief periods since the war began.
Iraq resumed crude oil exports from the Turkish Mediterranean port last week after a suspension of almost a year.