Blast hits secondary gas pipeline in Iraq's Kirkuk

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - An explosion early on Tuesday struck a secondary pipeline in Iraq that transports unrefined gas from Kirkuk's Bai Hasan oilfields, police and officials the North Oil Company said.

The gas sub-pipeline, used for domestic purposes, was set ablaze near the town of Dibis, 255 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, in the early hours. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

"The blast does not affect the crude exports from Kirkuk, it's for domestic use only," a North Oil Company official said.

"The blast has seriously damaged the sub-pipeline and our teams are working now to determine the causes," he added.

Kirkuk is the start of the pipeline to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey that handles Iraq's northern oil exports, the country's secondary export route for crude after the ports of Basra in the south.

The northern oil pipeline has been the target of frequent sabotage attacks but tighter security has allowed Baghdad to boost exports along the link since last summer.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mohammed in Kirkuk; writing by Ahmed Rasheed, editing by Anthony Barker)