KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Oil pumping operations from the Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan have stopped because of a technical glitch in the path of the line, an official source from the North Oil Company (NOC) said on Sunday.

"The defect occurred in al-Hader region, northwest of Kirkuk, and caused by worn out the line and leaked quantities of crude oil, which led to the suspension of the line on Sunday morning," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The source confirmed that the company's staff went to the scene to repair the line," the source added, noting that repairing the damage will take a few hours.

The 970-kilometre (600-mile) pipeline runs from Iraq's northern oil hub of Kirkuk to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, pumping 450,000 to 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

SH (TP)