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American Morning
Iraq Oil Fire
Aired September 18, 2003 - 07:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is other news, and we'll get to it quickly now, from Iraq. More on that powerful explosion of that oil pipeline, halting yet again the flow of oil from Iraq up north to Turkey.
Jason Bellini is on the scene there by way of videophone now.
Jason -- what happened?
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, this fire started overnight. Now, the coalition says we shouldn't jump to conclusions, that they don't know yet what the cause is of this fire on the oil pipeline here north of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
But I did speak with one chief engineer for the oil pipeline, and he said it looks to him like sabotage. He doesn't think it could be anything but that.
Now, they're working hard to put out this fire. What they've done is built a berm of dirt around the pipeline, and now they're using bulldozers to push the dirt onto the pipeline itself, trying to douse the flames. Also, at various times, they've used one of the five fire trucks here to spray water on the fire. It doesn't seem to have much of an effect.
General Sanchez from the coalition today said he did not know, again, what the cause of this oil fire is. But he says any time that Iraq is not exporting oil, it costs this country more than $7 million a day -- $7 million. So, the engineer here says that before they know how bad this is, before they know how long it will take to repair, they're going to have to put this fire out -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jason, thanks -- Jason Bellini in northern Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired September 18, 2003 - 07:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is other news, and we'll get to it quickly now, from Iraq. More on that powerful explosion of that oil pipeline, halting yet again the flow of oil from Iraq up north to Turkey.
Jason Bellini is on the scene there by way of videophone now.
Jason -- what happened?
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, this fire started overnight. Now, the coalition says we shouldn't jump to conclusions, that they don't know yet what the cause is of this fire on the oil pipeline here north of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
But I did speak with one chief engineer for the oil pipeline, and he said it looks to him like sabotage. He doesn't think it could be anything but that.
Now, they're working hard to put out this fire. What they've done is built a berm of dirt around the pipeline, and now they're using bulldozers to push the dirt onto the pipeline itself, trying to douse the flames. Also, at various times, they've used one of the five fire trucks here to spray water on the fire. It doesn't seem to have much of an effect.
General Sanchez from the coalition today said he did not know, again, what the cause of this oil fire is. But he says any time that Iraq is not exporting oil, it costs this country more than $7 million a day -- $7 million. So, the engineer here says that before they know how bad this is, before they know how long it will take to repair, they're going to have to put this fire out -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jason, thanks -- Jason Bellini in northern Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
