Tuesday's bombing ripped through a section of the conduit near the village of Midyat in Mardin province in southeastern Turkey, killing two civilians and halting the flow of oil.

Teams from the state-run oil and gas company BOTAS have begun inspections on the pipeline to assess damage before launching repairs, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials from BOTAS, which operates the pipeline, were not immediately available for comment.

Turkish authorities blame the bombing on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is waging a 26-year separatist campign against Ankara. The group which has attacked the conduit several times has not claimed responsibility.

The 970-kilometre (600-mile) pipeline carries crude oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, from where it is shipped to world markets by tanker.

The twin conduit, first inaugurated in 1976, carried 167.6 million barrels of oil last year, according to Turkish statistics.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed around 45,000 lives.

It has significantly stepped up attacks since its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared in May that he was abandoning efforts to seek dialogue with Ankara.