ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said on Saturday he was not sure who sabotaged Erbil-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline. He revealed that it was not blown-up but that it had been tapped into and oil stolen. Barzani told reporters, "I cannot confirm that the Kurdistan region oil pipeline was blown up and I cannot also say that PKK was behind it." Asked who has been behind the sabotage, Barzani replied "there are military operations in the area, and we cannot confirm that it is blown up, but it is certainly broken." "If the question is who has blown up the pipeline, I cannot affirm that PKK has done it." The Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), an affiliate of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) denied claims last week it sabotaged a key oil pipeline from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey's Ceyhan Port. Demhat Agit, a KCK spokesperson, told PKK media that the group did not know who was behind the Feb. 16 pipeline bombing. The export of the Kurdistan Region's oil will remain delayed for an additional two weeks due to security threats to the pipeline which runs through Turkey's Kurdish southeast where the Turkish state is once again engaged against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Reuters reported Saturday. "The physical repairs of the pipeline will not take a long time. However, the work to fully restore the security of the pipeline will take more time. We think that it will take two weeks at least," Reuters quoted a Turkish industry source as saying. A reported $14 million is being lost a day. About 600,000 barrels of oil were sent through that pipeline daily.
