Violence threatens oil, Iraq

Two Shiite political factions seem to have temporarily set down their arms in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, the center of its oil industry and the port through which all Iraq’s income flows. But the area and the oil sector still face violence while militias and gangs battle for power and control of the oil smuggling trade.

Last week a bomb successfully targeted a pipeline connecting the Rumaila oil field, which produces nearly half or Iraq’s 2 million barrels per day, to the southern network. The attack was rare, since the oil infrastructure is seen as important for the country and a prize for the intra-sectarian battles, but could foreshadow new instability
EarthTimes