Oil production halted at Bay Hassan following ISIS attack

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region- Officials in the city of Kirkuk have announced that oil production at Bay Hassan has come to a halt following an attack by a group of Islamic State (ISIS) on the area, including on a gas supply compound where they killed four police guards and four civil workers.

“Due to the ISIS attack, oil production at Bay Hassan has been stopped, "  Abdul Talib Darwesh, a Peshmerga commander told Rudaw.

“Oil production in Havana field is ongoing,” he added.

According to Peshmerga fighters on the scene the ISIS militants aimed at blowing up the Bay Hassan wells and cripple production in the area but that their plans failed when the Kurdish forces repelled their attack.

One worker is reportedly missing following the ISIS attack.

Kirkuk police backed by Peshmerga forces engaged in several hours of confrontation with the ISIS militants after they got intelligence that some of them had fled the gas compound following planting some bombs in the installation.

Brigadier Sarhad Qadir of the Kirkuk suburban police told Rudaw that three suicide bombers blew themselves up inside the compound, wounding three police officers and one Peshmerga soldier, among them Lieutenant Fayaq Chuchani, head of the compound.

Bay Hassan is a major source of oil and gas west of Kirkuk. 

Security officials said that the suicide bombers who numbered six were members of the group’s secret cell.