"The pipeline will open within the next few days," the official said about the fuel line going from oil-rich Kirkuk north to the Dohuk province and then on to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan. "It will have a capacity of between 200,000 and 300,000 barrels per day (bpd)," the official said Thursday, according to AFP. The official had earlier said the pipeline was down at least until mid-October after it was severely damaged in a June 12 blast blamed by industry sources on saboteurs, in a crippling blow to US plans to pay for Iraq's reconstruction with oil revenues. A string of sabotage attacks, carried out by Saddam Hussein loyalists or criminal gangs, have hobbled the US-led coalition's ability to export oil. The US-led administration is banking on 3.4 billion dollars in oil sales to pay for half of this year's six-billion-dollar budget and is setting up an Iraqi security force to guard oil sites. A coalition official said Tuesday Iraq's oil output was now surpassing one million barrels per day (bpd), up from 800,000-900,000 bpd. The coalition aims to boost oil production to three million bpd by the summer of 2004.