Turk incursion won't hit Iraq oil exports

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's exports of crude oil to Ceyhan in Turkey will not be disrupted by a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq, an official in Iraq's state-owned Northern Oil Company said on Sunday.

Pumping of Iraqi Kirkuk crude resumed on Friday night after a two-day stoppage because tanks in Ceyhan had been full, officials said.

"The incursion will not have any impact on crude pumping because the route of the pipelines does not pass through the conflict area," the official at the Northern Oil Company said.

Turkish troops entered a remote part of northern Iraq on Thursday to hunt down Kurdish rebels based there.

Crude is currently being pumped at 350,000 barrels per day to Ceyhan, the official said.

A shipping source said the flow had stopped last week due to a technical glitch and was not due to a lack of available storage at the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan.

"It was because of a technical problem, the storage was not even close to being full," said the shipper.

Exports from northern Iraq to Turkey are frequently interrupted by saboteurs or technical faults, raising doubts about its ability to meet commitments to sell more than 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of its Kirkuk crude in term contracts.

(Writing by Ahmed Rasheed, editing by Richard Hubbard)