The pipeline was isolated after the incident, but production and exports were not affected because it carried crude to a storage unit with sufficient reserves, Assem Jihad told AFP.

"Sabotage targeting an export pipeline for crude oil was carried out" around dawn Monday in Nineveh province, Jihad said without providing more details about the attack.

"It caused a fire but firemen controlled it.

"Because we have enough storage, it did not affect us. Our oil staff in the North Oil Company are in the final stages of repairing the pipeline," said the spokesman.

Monday's incident was the first publicised act of sabotage against Iraq's oil pipeline network since March 2008, when officials said a pipeline in the country's south was targeted.

Iraq currently produces around 2.5 million barrels per day of crude oil, two million barrels of which are exported, but Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani wants production to be ramped up to between 10 and 12 million bpd within six years.

Around 85 percent of Iraqi government revenues are from oil sales.

Iraq has the world's third-largest proven reserves of oil, with more than 115 billion barrels, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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