The blast occurred in a section of the pipeline in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa in Turkey, the Anatolian Agency said, adding initial findings blamed the incident on an abrupt change of pressure in the network.

The twin pipeline, which runs from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan and has a capacity to carry some 70 million tons of crude a year, was also bombed previously by the terrorist PKK organization in the past.

Authorities turned shut down the flow as oil spilled as far as two kilometers from the site of the blast, reaching the shores of a major dam in the region, A.A. said.



It was not immediately clear when the conduit would be re-opened.



The pipeline has been often sabotaged also by insurgents inside Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.



It carried about 40 million barrels of Iraqi oil to Ceyhan last year, according to Turkey's state-run oil and gas company, BOTAS.



In August, a powerful blast disrupted for three weeks the flow through another oil pipeline in Turkey that carries Azeri oil from Baku to Ceyhan, for which the terrorist PKK organization claimed responsibility.