IRAQ: Ring of steel around Basra oil terminal

Record ID: 343677

  • Title: IRAQ: Ring of steel around Basra oil terminal
  • Date: 11th July 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF IRAQI SOLDIERS SCOURING AL-SHATT/ ON PATROL LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVAAME6KZ4K743936N552O52L0OU
  • Story Text: In the hazy twilight, it doesn't look like much -- a giant, lonely gas station miles off the Iraqi coast that pumps 1.8 million barrels of crude oil a day into the holds of berthed tankers as others queue patiently, waiting their turn to fill up.
    But a protective screen of circling warships underlines the importance of the Basra Oil Terminal, not only as the main source of Iraq's revenues but as a supplier to the global energy market. Iraq sits on the world's second largest oil reserves.
    The warships from the United States, Britain and Australia are there to guard against any seaborne attack against one of the most important economic targets in the world.
    Twelve nautical miles off the Iraqi coast, twin 48 inch pipes carrying the lifeblood of Iraq from the al-Faw peninsula rise up off the seabed on to the twin platforms of the 1,000m-long oil terminal and into the holds of the tankers.
    The Royal Navy frigate, HMS Kent, along with others in the small armada, spend their days shepherding fishing dhows out of the exclusion zone around the two terminals, sounding their sirens, flashing their lights or broadcasting warnings in Arabic and Farsi to warn them off.
    On a radar screen on the Kent's bridge, the two oil terminals appear as an oblong red blob, surrounded by a shaded pink area that marks the 2,000m exclusion zone and a wider circle that demarcates the 3,000m warning zone. When that is breached, the Kent moves swiftly to intercept the offender.
    Most of the fishermen have no global positioning systems or radios and are either unaware they are trespassing or are trying to take a shortcut through the zone to get home.
    Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for a suicide boat attack on the Basra facility in 2004. Three U.S. navy sailors died in the attack by bombers in three boats who blew themselves up in and around the terminal zone.
    Tankers coming into the terminals are boarded and searched before private security teams escort them to their berths.
    The last line of defence against attack is U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Kenny Miller, the 36 sailors of Mobile Security Detachment 71 from Guam under his command, and a platoon of Iraqi marines they are training to take control.
    "Our main function right here in the al-Basra Oil Terminal is to assist in providing security, point basic security for the oil terminal south working side by side with the Iraqi marines that have been assigned to this work. They are currently primarily responsible for the security..... the terminal and we are here to monitor and also to progress the training level to the point where they will take eventually hold the responsibility......," said Miller.
    Shipping sources say Iraq's July oil exports hit 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd).
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