Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
by Marwan Ibrahim
KIRKUK, Iraq, Nov 17 (AFP) - Northern Iraq's oilfields are a prime target
for rebels looking to disrupt the country's economy, but now local
authorities have come up with innovative ways of getting the vital liquid
flowing.
Oil installations and pipelines around the northern hub of Kirkuk, also an
ethnically tense city riven by divisions between its Arab, Kurd and Turkmen
inhabitants, have been targeted by at least 290 acts of sabotage since
Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003.
Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq, these northern oilfields produced
between 700,000 and 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) but now they struggle to
reach 500,000 bpd.
An oil ministry official said in July that Iraq had lost around 11.35
billion dollars from damage to its oil infrastructure and lost revenue since
crude exports resumed in June 2003.
In its latest budget, the Iraqi government has set aside three billion
dollars for oil sector investment, which can be drawn from oil exports --
provided the pipelines are pumping.
The last coordinated attack on October 20 hit a network of 16 oil and gas
pipelines, bringing the entire system to a standstill.
An official from the Northern Oil Company said the damage will be repaired
some time next week, adding however that large cracks had appeared in the
oil pipelines, most of which are more than 35 years old.
After the repairs, a week of tests will further delay the pumping of oil to
the Baiji refinery north of Baghdad and to Turkey's Ceyhan terminal on the
Mediterranean, he said.
Now a new pipeline is being built that will carry much more oil from Kirkuk
to Baiji and should offer insurgents less easy prey.
"This oil pipeline will be buried several metres underground so that no
explosive device can reach it," said the official, with the existing
pipelines running along the roadside offering an easy target for rebels.
The ministries of defence and oil last week also drew up a new security
plan, with US help, to protect the region's oil facilities from attack, said
Iraqi General Anwar Hama Amin.
US forces are to intensify their patrols in the area as well as bring in air
surveillance, especially of the pipeline running to Turkey.
The increased surveillance will also monitor electric cables bringing vital
power to production facilities that are likewise favoured by insurgents
looking for easy prey.
Local tribal leaders have been contacted in the area in the hope of bringing
them in on the surveillance operation, but they are all too often impotent
to do anything about the attacks.
"Alone, I can do nothing and it's impossible for me to give guarantees,
insecurity is total in the region," said Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Assi of
Kirkuk's Obaid tribe.
The head of the Jbur tribe in Hawijah, Karim Khalaf, said that he wants the
attacks to stop because when they do occur, "we are the first victims."
"American forces search the area and arrest young men, homes close to where
attacks happen are abandoned because of the fires (started by the bombs) and
finally the flames burn our crops," he said.
Amin, in charge of oil infrastructure protection forces in the north, told
AFP that he had 4,000 men to secure the sensitive sites.
The force protects an area stretching from oilfields 55 kilometres (40
miles) north of Kirkuk to production and refining facilities 110 kilometres
west of the city.
Amin says his men have modern equipment, both for fighting and for
communicating. Watchtowers have been set up to monitor the oil pipelines and
dissuade rebels from planting their bombs.
KIRKUK, Iraq, Nov 17 (AFP) - Northern Iraq's oilfields are a prime target
for rebels looking to disrupt the country's economy, but now local
authorities have come up with innovative ways of getting the vital liquid
flowing.
Oil installations and pipelines around the northern hub of Kirkuk, also an
ethnically tense city riven by divisions between its Arab, Kurd and Turkmen
inhabitants, have been targeted by at least 290 acts of sabotage since
Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003.
Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq, these northern oilfields produced
between 700,000 and 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) but now they struggle to
reach 500,000 bpd.
An oil ministry official said in July that Iraq had lost around 11.35
billion dollars from damage to its oil infrastructure and lost revenue since
crude exports resumed in June 2003.
In its latest budget, the Iraqi government has set aside three billion
dollars for oil sector investment, which can be drawn from oil exports --
provided the pipelines are pumping.
The last coordinated attack on October 20 hit a network of 16 oil and gas
pipelines, bringing the entire system to a standstill.
An official from the Northern Oil Company said the damage will be repaired
some time next week, adding however that large cracks had appeared in the
oil pipelines, most of which are more than 35 years old.
After the repairs, a week of tests will further delay the pumping of oil to
the Baiji refinery north of Baghdad and to Turkey's Ceyhan terminal on the
Mediterranean, he said.
Now a new pipeline is being built that will carry much more oil from Kirkuk
to Baiji and should offer insurgents less easy prey.
"This oil pipeline will be buried several metres underground so that no
explosive device can reach it," said the official, with the existing
pipelines running along the roadside offering an easy target for rebels.
The ministries of defence and oil last week also drew up a new security
plan, with US help, to protect the region's oil facilities from attack, said
Iraqi General Anwar Hama Amin.
US forces are to intensify their patrols in the area as well as bring in air
surveillance, especially of the pipeline running to Turkey.
The increased surveillance will also monitor electric cables bringing vital
power to production facilities that are likewise favoured by insurgents
looking for easy prey.
Local tribal leaders have been contacted in the area in the hope of bringing
them in on the surveillance operation, but they are all too often impotent
to do anything about the attacks.
"Alone, I can do nothing and it's impossible for me to give guarantees,
insecurity is total in the region," said Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Assi of
Kirkuk's Obaid tribe.
The head of the Jbur tribe in Hawijah, Karim Khalaf, said that he wants the
attacks to stop because when they do occur, "we are the first victims."
"American forces search the area and arrest young men, homes close to where
attacks happen are abandoned because of the fires (started by the bombs) and
finally the flames burn our crops," he said.
Amin, in charge of oil infrastructure protection forces in the north, told
AFP that he had 4,000 men to secure the sensitive sites.
The force protects an area stretching from oilfields 55 kilometres (40
miles) north of Kirkuk to production and refining facilities 110 kilometres
west of the city.
Amin says his men have modern equipment, both for fighting and for
communicating. Watchtowers have been set up to monitor the oil pipelines and
dissuade rebels from planting their bombs.