Basra oil terminal pumping normally, officials say

BAGHDAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) Iraq's southern Basra oil terminal was pumping normally today, Iraqi officials said, despite earlier reports of a planned work stoppage to protest against Baghdad bomb blasts that killed 200 people.

An official at Basra airport had said yesterday that both the airport and the sea port, through which Iraq pumps most of its oil, would be closed today.

''Oil is flowing. These reports are wrong,'' Thamir al-Siqelawi, an adviser to the transport minister, told Reuters.

A Southern Oil Company official confirmed the terminal was operating as normal.

Iraq depends almost entirely on its southern oil export terminals since sabotage has kept a northern oil pipeline closed for most of the last 3-1/2 years.

Reuters DKA GC1941