- Title: IRAQ: Iraq's oil infrastructure vulnerable as country prepares for US handover
- Date: 21st July 2011
- Summary: VARIOUS OF U.S. HELICOPTER PATROLLING OIL INSTALLATIONS VARIOUS OF AERIAL VIEW OF OIL INSTALLATIONS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CHIEF OF SOUTH OIL POLICE, BRIGADIER MOUSSA ABDUL-HASSAN, SAYING: "It is imperative that oil police have their own planes to carryout surveillance and patrol missions along vital and strategic oil pipelines. At the moment, this is not available." VAR
- Embargoed: 5th August 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq, Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Business,Conflict,Economic News,Energy
- Reuters ID: LVAEKGDZ1FZYT4UACBI6DM2SLT3M
- Story Text: Protecting Iraq's oil infrastructure is crucial as the country tries to rebuild more than eight years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, and as Washington prepares to withdraw US troops at the end of this year.
Iraq's oil police have little to work with in tough desert conditions as they try to protect the vital oil infrastructure and the foreign oil firms that hold the key to Iraq's efforts to recover from years of war, sanctions and economic deprivation.
Since it began auctioning oilfields in 2009, the OPEC member has signed deals with global players that could boost its output capacity to 12 million barrels per day, lifting it into the top echelon and rivalling world leader Saudi Arabia.
But securing its 7,000 km (4,300 miles) of oil and gas pipeline is a challenge. Al Qaeda insurgents, Shi'ite militias and other armed groups are trying to disrupt a democracy in its infancy eight years after the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The oil police have no aeroplanes or helicopters to patrol that vast network, relying instead on crude watch posts at intervals along the pipeline, and hourly foot patrols.
With an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, a member of the oil police recently walked beside a pipeline stretched like a silver thread across the vast, burning desert of southern Iraq, stopping now and then to brush sand aside with his foot.
He was looking for bombs.
The difficult conditions coupled with lack of equipment, raise questions over the force's ability to halt attacks.
Some watch posts are little more than flimsy, khaki-coloured tents, unlettered sides fluttering in the scorching winds of a desert where summer temperatures can reach 55 degrees Celsius.
Iraq's chief of the south oil police recently said Iraq was barely capable of protecting its oil resources.
Brigadier Moussa Abdul-Hassan said investment by foreign oil companies has increased the demand on oil police providing protection.
"Our responsibilities have expanded recently due to the entry of foreign investment, which has led to more oil fields. This ultimately calls for more troops, equipment and vehicles," Hassan told Reuters in an interview in Basra.
Hassan said future oilfield development plans hint at a natural increase in the workload expected from his forces.
"At the moment we just have security at the oil facilities under control, but we know that in the future, say in a year, there will be expansions, we will have new oil fields, new oil wells and new stations will be constructed -- there will be a new oil field in Majnoon and one in West Qurna 2, which is being funded by a Russian investor. These are new oil fields, with no buildings or wells. For sure they will be building new oil fields and new stations, which will further stretch out our responsibilities," he said.
Protecting vital infrastructure is a key element of Iraq's ambitious plans to lure the billions of dollars in foreign investment it needs to rebuild a shattered economy as Washington prepares to withdraw American troops by year-end.
Hassan said having sophisticated security cameras and monitoring systems could make such breaches avoidable as his teams are doing a good job protecting facilities but need bomb detectors, sophisticated alarms and thermal cameras.
"For the future, we hope to increase the number of troops in order to cope with demand, because we need to initiate training, which will take time. We need to plan for the future, so we need large numbers of police and all the necessary equipment -- by equipment I don't mean individual machines, but we need advanced equipment. At the moment we are just working with what we have available."
"It is imperative that oil police have their own planes to carryout surveillance and patrol missions along vital and strategic oil pipelines. At the moment, this is not available," Hassan added.
Major-General Hamid Ibrahim, the head of the oil police, told Reuters in March the 40,000-member force needed to add 12,000 more officers.
Pipelines, storage tanks and refineries have often been attacked by insurgents since the 2003 invasion. The vital Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports some 500,000 bpd of crude from the north through Turkey to the Mediterranean, was shut down for five days in March by a bomb.
In February militants hit the Baiji refinery, Iraq's largest, killing workers and detonating bombs that shut down the 310,000 bpd-capacity plant for days.
In early June, the Zubair 1 storage facility was attacked.
Zubair is surrounded by tight security and visitors pass three checkpoints to reach the site. Yet the bombers managed to plant four bombs fashioned from C-4 explosive atop four storage tanks -- one connected to a mobile phone -- without being seen by guards.
In response to the Zubair attack, authorities in Basra are studying new security measures, including blast walls, trenches, barbed wire, watch towers and thermal cameras around facilities.
Basra, which handles the bulk of Iraq's oil exports, has seen fewer attacks than other cities, but rocket and roadside bomb attacks by groups loyal to neighbouring Iran still occur. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None