Iraqi Oil Minister Talks About ”Oil Police”, Oil Law, Oilfields

“We are trying to produce about 3 million barrels of oil daily by next year,” says the minister in conversation with Die Welt. In some Western media there has already been talk about 4 million barrels (159 litres each) of daily production. “That is exaggerated, we can’t manage that,” replies Shahristani clearly and distinctly. Currently, there are only two regions in which there is production: Basra in the south and Kirkuk in the north. Together about 2.5 million barrels a day would be pumped, 2 million of them exported.

“This is the largest production quantity since the overthrow of the previous regime.” Everything is then supposed to get better in 2013. The minister expects a production of 4.5 million barrels – with the help of international companies, which for the first time in 40 years are to produce in the country again.
Of the 2.5 million barrels the wells around Basra, the second largest city on the Persian Gulf, deliver 75 per cent. “Our largest fields are in the south, although the entire country almost swims on an oil bubble,” says Shahristani. The most recent studies have yielded that Iraq is the second richest oil nation in the world after Saudi Arabia. The black gold will last for close to 200 years here – depending on production quantities.

But the fields around Kirkuk in the north are old, and the yield is diminishing. Pumping has been under way in the north since 1927. In addition, since the invasion of the US and British troops there have been plenty of attacks on production facilities and pipelines there as well as many cases of sabotage, so that sometimes production has had to be completely shut down. “This has faced us with enormous difficulties,” the minister admits. Kirkuk produces only 600,000 barrels a day. However, its capacity would still be 1 million. Security has improved since January, and now it is hoped that these possibilities can soon be fully utilized.

The first barrel of oil was pumped at Basra 60 years ago. “Throughout all the years we did not pump close to as much in the south as right now.” But here, too, there are difficulties. While in the north attacks and sabotage halt production, in the south it is corruption and smuggling. Shahristani purposefully suppresses that rumours of bribes circulate about his ministry as well.

Instead, the oil minister speaks about rival Shi’i militias which finance themselves with “stolen” oil. Above all crude oil, which is pumped in the fields and from there goes to the port of Basra in order to be offered to the traders. On the way there the pipelines are tapped, says Shahristani. “This way we lost a great deal of oil during last year.”

That could change. Because the military operation against “the criminals” which the government in Baghdad started at the end of March in Basra, and which initially also looked like a setback for Prime Minister Maliki and his cabinet, now seems to be working after all with the help of US and British troops. Although individual cities in the south are still firmly under the control of Muqtada al- Sadr and the groups affiliated with him, the government has the upper hand in Basra. This makes the oil minister confident that the oil smuggling will be stopped in the foreseeable future.

For this purpose Shahristani is relying fully on the oil police, who are a major expense for the government; 30,000 men are employed to protect the oilfields, production facilities, workers, refineries, and pipelines. To begin with, a department of the Oil Ministry put together protective troops for the facilities. Different firms and organizations were engaged for different projects.

Red Orbit