Oil prices ease

LONDON, AUGUST 17 (Reuters) - Oil prices eased on Tuesday as fears of supply disruptions in Venezuela and Russia receded following a convincing referendum victory for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and after Russia's YUKOS said it had received an assurance on September exports.

But worries about lowly U.S. crude inventories and continued disruption in Iraqi supplies underpinned prices that remain $9 a barrel, 25 percent, higher than at the end of June.

Meanwhile, Iraq's oil exports remained at half their normal flows on Tuesday as a Shi'ite uprising kept a main pipeline feeding southern terminals shut, an official in the South Oil Company said.

The exports have been mostly running at around one million barrels per day (bpd) since saboteurs attacked the pipeline on August 8. The pipeline was subsequently repaired but operated only for few hours before authorities shut it.

"There are enough workers to operate the pipeline, but they have not received the go-ahead for security reasons," said the official, who declined to be named.

He was referring to a Shi'ite uprising that erupted in central and southern Iraq last week.