Blown-up oil pipeline in eastern Libya to take week to repair

TRIPOLI, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- An official source of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation said on Wednesday that the oil pipeline in eastern Libya blown up by unknown armed group would need a week to be repaired.

The source said that joint firefighting teams managed to put out the fire in the pipeline after a whole day of work.

"The pipeline is severely damaged," the source added, confirming that the repair process could last until the first week of January.

The source expected the bombing of the pipeline could cause a loss of 90,000 barrels of oil per day, despite temporary use of a nearby pipeline.

An oil pipeline in eastern Libya was blown up on Tuesday by an unknown armed group in the oil crescent region, some 500 km east of the capital Tripoli, which contains the country's largest oil ports.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. However, a source of the corporation did not rule out possibility for involvement of IS militants, who previously claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the region. Enditem