ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports crude from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey, has been shut down due to sabotage, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Wednesday.
The pipeline was bombed in Turkey’s Kurdish province of Sirnak in the southeast, according to information by the Turkish Energy Ministry.
“We have shut down the pipeline after an explosion to stop the oil flow. We have taken the necessary steps and the attack will not impact supply and demand,” said Yildiz.
He explained that Turkey’s energy installations were under attack by terrorists who are targeting the country’s stability and development.
A similar attack targeted the Turkey-Iran natural gas pipeline on Tuesday in Agri, a Kurdish province of Turkey on the border with Iran.
Iranian officials said the pipeline would be functional again within three days, Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the official website of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, the People’s Protection Forces (HPG), claimed its forces had carried out a sabotage operation against the pipeline in the area between Silopi and the Cizre district, both in Sirnak, where the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline passes.
