BAGHDAD, 17 December, 2020, (TON):  Two oil wells in a small oilfield in northern Iraq's Kirkuk province were set ablaze by explosives in a "terrorist attack" on Wednesday but overall production from the field was not affected , the Oil Ministry and officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi Minister of Oil Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail said the Iraqi oil companies have managed "to extinguish the fires in the two wells of Khubbaz oilfield in Kirkuk province at an unprecedented time," a ministry statement quoted Ismail as saying in a letter sent to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

In his letter, Ismail praised the efforts of the employees of the Iraqi North Oil Company and the national oil companies that support extinguishing the oil wells, stressing that "this is the appropriate response to terrorism that targets the national oil wealth," according to the statement.

The Oil Ministry gave no further details about the assailants behind the explosive devices that targeted the wells in Khabbaz oilfield, 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Kirkuk.

Technical teams isolated the two burning oil wells and there was no impact on output, two sources from the state-run North Oil Company (NOC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

The field produces about 25,000 barrels per day, oil officials said. The ministry said production from the two wells that were targeted did not exceed 2,000 bpd.

The ministry statement said a fire erupted at the two oil wells after explosive devices were set off half an hour apart.

Iraq's oil installations and pipelines have been frequently attacked by extremist IS militants despite the improvement of the security situation in the country after the government declared the full defeat of terror group throughout the country late in 2017.