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Page added on April 10, 2014
Militant Bombs Stop Iraq Oil for a Record 40 days
Militants whose bombs have shut Iraq’s main northern oil export pipeline for 40 days are preventing repairs, threatening to extend an outage that is already the longest since the days of sanctions in the 1990s.
Targeting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline where it crosses a stretch of desert known as Ain al-Jahash, or Donkey Springs, the saboteurs – described as Islamists by Iraqi officials – have set several more bombs since a first blast halted oil on March 2.
Significantly for an Iraqi government hoping for a big rise in exports this year – and long used to brief halts on the route to the Mediterranean – gunmen have also massacred repair crews, prompting oil executives in Mosul to question optimism in Baghdad that the pipeline should be back in action next week.
“We have decided to stop all repair operations in Ain al-Jahash until we are sure our crews won’t get killed,” a senior official of Iraq’s North Oil Company told Reuters. “Oil flow is important, but the blood of our employees is more precious.”
Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said this week that pumping to Turkey’s Ceyhan port should resume next week after repairs to a line that carries about a fifth of Iraq’s total crude exports.
But managers at the NOC and security officials in Mosul – none of whom would speak publicly – said it would take much greater force to ensure the pipeline’s security in area where al Qaeda-linked groups have expanded their operations from Syria.
“It’s impossible for us to control it fully,” said a senior security official said of Ain al-Jahash, which NOC staff have nicknamed “Tora Bora” after al Qaeda’s Afghan bastion. “It’ll take a whole army, with tanks and jets, to hold the ground.”
Two security officials in Mosul said a “clean-up” operation against militants south of the city was being prepared to protect the pipeline but the timing was unclear: “We have to find a solution to the deteriorating security in southern Mosul quickly, or else things will get out of control,” one said.
Maintenance crews have threatened to walk out rather than be sent to the area, where five technicians were gunned down a month ago before they could repair the damage caused by the first blast. Since then, three more bombings have inflicted further damage on the line. Three further repair missions have been thwarted by ambushes, despite having military escorts.
NOC officials blame the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Sunni Islamist group previously linked to al Qaeda which is fighting Syria’s Iranian-backed administration and also operating over the border against Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government.
LOCAL UNREST
The militants have benefited from support among Sunnis in Iraq’s northwestern desert, who resent both the Shi’ites brought to power in Baghdad by the U.S. overthrow of Sunni Saddam Hussein in 2003 and also of the autonomous Kurds to their east.
Several local officials in Mosul said efforts had been made to co-opt residents of villages in the area to help the authorities by offering jobs in public services and security forces. But most refused, fearing reprisals from insurgents.
“If we join the government forces then who will protect us?” asked Anwar al-Hadidi, a 27-year-old farmer who traveled to Mosul from Ain al-Jahash to work as day labourer. “Al Qaeda would slaughter us immediately. If the security forces can’t protect a metal pipe, then how will they save our lives?”
During the U.S. invasion, the Kirkuk-Ceyhan line was shut for 25 days, officials said. Damaged by Western bombing in the 1990 Gulf War and then kept closed by U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam, it reopened in 1996 when some oil exports were allowed.
Occasional attacks in the past decade have been repaired more quickly. But the latest sabotage has forced the NOC to shut down some production stations in two major oilfields at Kirkuk, squeezing total production to around 225,000 barrels per day (bpd) from around 550,000 bpd before the attack, officials said.
Militants have also attacked energy facilities near Mosul, away from the pipeline. In late March, gunmen managed to plant four bombs inside the Qayara oilfield to the south of the city and bombs went off near an oil well. It is still leaking gas.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki replaced army commanders in Mosul last month over the failure to secure the areas around the pipeline and curb the growing power of the ISIL.
The bulk of Iraq’s oil is produced in the south and shipped abroad through the Gulf but the closure of the northern route has held back a hoped-for growth in exports that have also been hampered in the north by disputes with the Kurdish authorities.
Iraq, the second biggest oil producer in OPEC, has been the world’s fastest growing oil exporter following long years of isolation and violence and many in the global industry expect sales to increase significantly this year following a drop-off in the momentum of export growth in 2013.
An average of around 300,000 bpd was pumped through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan line last year. Luaibi said on Wednesday he hoped Iraq would be sending 1 million bpd by the end of the year with the help of a new 200-km pipeline to Turkey.
Officials in Turkey complained that they had been kept in the dark by their Iraqi counterparts about the state of the pipeline, and did not know when exports would resume: “Turkish and foreign companies are unhappy with this situation because they can not buy oil,” a senior Turkish energy official said.
“We keep asking but all they say is we should wait”.
12 Comments on "Militant Bombs Stop Iraq Oil for a Record 40 days"
Boat on Thu, 10th Apr 2014 11:58 pm
Stopping the flow of energy is my biggest fear when it comes to gloom and doom. Surprised this hasn’t happened in ukraine already. That would force nations on both sides to work together or calm down and find a path forward if thats even possible.
GregT on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 12:36 am
The flow of energy will stop, sooner or later, and there are a myriad of reasons for it to do so. The good news? We can survive without the flow of energy.
My biggest concern is when the flow of food is diminished. Not enough food leads to civil unrest, violence, and starvation. We are spending far too much of our time and energy, on trying to figure out how to keep the oil flowing for a while longer, with nowhere near enough of a focus on what really matters. Food and water. To make matters worse, the more fossil fuels we burn, the more serious the effects will be from climate change on our food supplies.
We are trying to maintain BAU, at the expense of future food production. We need to start thinking about what truly matters, instead of focussing on economics, money, and greed.
Makati1 on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 1:08 am
Forever without oil –
Thirty days without food –
Three days without water.
Nuff said.
DC on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 1:21 am
Under Saddam, for whatever faults he had and crimes committed, Iraq had none of the problems the u$ invasion brought. There was no ‘civil war’, no pipeline bombings, no suicide market bombers or so-called ‘A-Q Linked whatever’s’ coming in by way of Syria. The amerikan war, terror and spy machine brings enduring chaos everywhere it goes. You would almost think it was, ahem, deliberate policy on the u$’s part…..
bobinget on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 2:36 am
Here’s a link to “Iraqi Pipeline Watch” (ends in 2008)
The ‘watch goes on’ but on other web pages.
http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm
Iran claims Saudis are indirectly financing pipeline bomb throwers.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/08/11/318255/saudi-arabia-funding-violence-in-iraq/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia–Sunni_relations
Your welcome to my conspiracy theory; Russia, Iran and Iraq will form a rival cartel to eliminate Saudi Arabia from OPEC.
Makati1 on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 3:16 am
FYI: “Iraq: the success of Russian oilmen”
“…“Everything is relative and we can compare what the USA did to our country with what Russia is doing now,” wrote the Iraqi newspaper al-Furat. “America, this bastion of democracy, completely destroyed Iraqi statehood, annihilated its infrastructure and industry and is now attempting to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign state. Russia, by way of contrast, is attempting to help us emerge from the difficult condition which we were driven into by America. The commencement of work at the ‘West Qurna Phase II’ oilfield is a striking example of this. This operation will create new jobs, reduce unemployment, and the revenues from the exploitation of the oilfield will, we hope, be directed towards the revival of our industry and the creation of new infrastructure.””
The US destroys and Russia and China get the spoils…nice!
Makati1 on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 3:18 am
BTW: source of info above:
http://journal-neo.org/2014/04/11/rus-irak-uspehi-rossijskih-neftyanikov/
by Viktor Mikhin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
Anon on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 3:38 am
So how much have exports dropped – is it down 225,000 b/d compared to last year?
@ DC – you’ve either read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, or you should.
My own theory is that armed conflict has & is being used to reverse or slow the internal development of many oil exporters (eg. Vietnam, Columbia, Iraq, Libya), so as to encourage cheap oil exports.
Arthur on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 11:09 am
NOC officials blame the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Sunni Islamist group previously linked to al Qaeda which is fighting Syria’s Iranian-backed administration and also operating over the border against Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government.
The entire Middle-East is going to be torn apart between Sunnis (Istanbul-Damascus) and Shi’ites (Tehran-Baghdad), where the latter have the better cards, because the’re:
a) backed by Moscow-Beijing
b) Shi’ite territory = oil territory, Sunni territory is desert.
Under Saddam, for whatever faults he had and crimes committed, Iraq had none of the problems the u$ invasion brought.
No Saddam, no Iraq.
No Tito, no Yugoslavia.
No Stalin, no USSR.
When it comes to geopolitics, you can’t apply the same norms to leaders/dictators of multi-ethnic societies, as you apply to your circle of friends or local tennis club members, the types that send Christmas cards, wear pink pullovers and watch their smart phones to check the performance of their 10,000$ worth of stocks.
The same observation btw applies to the US of the future. Either some Goldstein neo-Bolshevik dictator appears at they horizon, or the country will fall apart, or at best a loose confederation will emerge, with highly independent governors like Jones, Ventura and Winfrey.
Tertium no datur.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 11:46 am
Art, you and your buddies, forget the most important variables “FOOD”. The massive overshoot of the ME populations are in no way able to feed themselves. ME has the energy but no the water. KSA proved they could be self-sufficient in basic food until they mined their aquifers dry. The massive overshoot of the ME populations are in no way able to feed themselves. There are a few places in the world that have a surplus of the basics primarily the US and Brazil. So you can Monday morning quarterback with the US in the ME and the intriguing future political structures but the ME is in massive overshoot to its carrying capacity. That will dictate future trade and politics. The US is going to remain center stage because of the food card. No other economy can produce and export food like the US and Brazil. We need both the US and Brazil and still this will not be enough. So I expect cooperation with this in mind and your fanciful anti-American political designs a fantasy at best.
Makati1 on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 12:42 pm
The US and Brazil are both in deep drought. Their food future is also in doubt. How many years until the US grain belt dries up and blows away and Brazil runs out of water? The Amazon is having droughts, due to the deforestation that is occurring to grow food. If the temps keep rising, Canada and Russia may be the future bread baskets of the world. Then again, Canada is too busy fouling their water supply to be able to grow anything edible or even for their wildlife to survive.
I would be hesitant to predict anything 20 years in the future based on past history. Nothing is for sure except death.
bobinget on Fri, 11th Apr 2014 5:48 pm
Makati mentions three of the planet’s biggest countries. I must remind, nations; Russia, Canada and Brazil will never be TOTALLY drought stricken. Just too large. China is dealing (or trying) with persistent drought with the largest water pipeline in history: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/china-has-launched-the-largest-water-pipeline-project-in-history/284300/
It’s totally true, parts of the US are in persistent drought. I farm in one of these regions.
While I can’t believe ANY GOOD can come of climate change, we in the West have been dealing with drought
as long as people settled into one location.
Early growers in my valley dug, sometimes by hand,
irrigation canals that thankfully are still in use.
Wittingly one Right Wing wordsmith coined the term
‘climate change’ to take some sting out of global warming. As it happens ‘change’ is more accurate.
Last winter’s Arctic blast is a perfect example.
Drought or no drought the United States may bring in one of the biggest corn and bean crops in history.