Just wanted to show a little bit of confused/negative reporting on the large Iraqi oil pipeline that was blown up last Tuesday.

In the NY Times' initial reporting, it was said that shutdown was "expected to (last) about 10 days, costing the country up to $1 billion in revenue." The estimate came from a fellow journalist, "an authority on the Iraqi oil industry."

However, the same expert said that "production could be increased later to compensate for the shutdown once repairs are made."

In other words, there would be zero economic impact. But you'd have to read all the way to the bottom to see that.

Luckily, it only took 5 days to repair at least one of them, as reported in today's paper via the Associated Press - Repairs Completed On Iraq Oil Pipeline What's confusing is this information:

"Exports of up to 900,000 barrels a day were expected to resume later Sunday"

"Sabotage attacks damaged two pipelines that can carry over 1.5 million barrels a day"

"Only the smaller of the two southern lines has been repaired"

Simple math tells me that 1.5 million less 900 thousand is 600 thousand. How is it that the larger, unrepaired pipeline pumps less oil?

Also reported in the last 24 hours were these pieces:

Iraq Oil Pipeline Still Under Repair

Repairs to Sabotaged Pipeline Are Delayed

I'm soooooooooo confused my brain's exploding!