Iraq Oil Infrastructure Losing Billions

[maddezmom]

~snip~

An estimated 20 oil wells and pipelines were bombed or set abalze this month in northern Iraq alone, according to an official of the Northern Company. Iraq has oilfields in the north around Kirkuk and in the south near Basra.


Iraq's security crisis and its long, porous land borders left the country's petroleum industry with no effective protection against saboteurs — either Saddam loyalists or tribesmen competing for jobs with the British security firm Erinys International, which has a contract to secure oil wells and pipelines.

Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, chief of the Iraqi National Guardsmen in Kirkuk, said that Erinys hires tribes to guard oil installations. For guarding pipelines, he said the going rate is $1,100 per mile secured.


"The tribes are fighting over who wins the largest number of contracts," Amin said, adding that the losers "blow up the pipelines and oil wells in retaliation."

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_oil_under_attack&cid=540&ncid=1480

[Old and In the Way]

1. Ask the Sauds if they crying the blues.

Everyday their product is worth more.....and they've got the US Military taking the ME fundie/radical heat next door. And they sure are happy to see Saddam and his Son's out of the picture.

[Fovea]

2. Of course the royal family is not sitting on a very stable

seat. I think they are on the edge, and about to be engulfed in flames of their own. That is the blowback they face from wahabbists, and we will pay for it by being drawn into their civil war.

[Old and In the Way]

7. They are probably better off than they were before we invaded Iraq.

If things are so bad, would they have let the US exit from their bases? If you look at the context of things since our invasion of Iraq, they are better off today. Our military provides a convenient grounding rod for the radical fundies focus. Not saying their won't be eventual blowback, but they certainly seem to have benefited from the Bush Doctrine in the ME.

[purduejake]

3. I feel bad saying this....

and maybe I should, but I think it serves us right to not make a single cent from the oil there. If we can't get any damned oil from Iraq, maybe we will give up since it was a major concern going in? I'm just looking for something that will prompt a withdrawal.

[Mokito]

4. This administration has passed that point long ago

Off course they still hope to cash in on the oil, but don't fool yourself with hopes of withdrawal as long as this administration is in charge.
Even if it means completely draining the American economy and sacrificing every single American life for it, they will continue this war until their egos are satisfied and their fundamental belief in American superiority as a God given right is ratified.
I believe this war is way beyond the point of economics...with a sharp turn to wards idealism.

[maddezmom]

5. Erinys declined to discuss with AP

Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, chief of the Iraqi National Guardsmen in Kirkuk, said that Erinys hires tribes to guard oil installations. For guarding pipelines, he said the going rate is $1,100 per mile secured.



The company tried to make use of the tribal power but it failed," Amin added.


An official of the Northern Company, which runs the fields around Kirkuk, said the company has been reluctant to withhold payment if a tribe fails to secure a line "so the attacks are endless.


Erinys refused to meet with an Associated Press reporter to discuss security issues.

[amandabeech]

6. So, according to this article, even if the U.S./Coalition leave,

there may be continued problems with pipelines and wells in northern Iraq as tribes (I suppose the better term might be "clans") compete with protection money, even if the Sunni resistance faded away. That is, unless a leadership ready to take drastic action in case of pipeline sabotage gains power.

That means that electrical power plants dependent on oil or gas from the northern fields will continue to operate only sporadically, hindering the operation of utilities like water treatment, sewage treatment and telephones in addition to the electricity necessary to run almost anything.

If this should spread to clans in the more ethnically homogeneous south, which has more oil and gas, I believe, things could get worse.

Perhaps the best bet would be to drill for gas in the safer south and generate baseload electricity with high-efficiency natural gas generators. Perhaps we could sell the Iraqis the equipment now that $7 natural gas makes many gas-fired generators here in the U.S. superfluous.

[cliss]

8. Interesting.

Thanks for the update. It looks like the Iraqis are using tribesmen to guard the oil pipeline. The cost is $1,100 per mile. I've read that there are 900 miles of above-ground pipeline in Iraq.

900 X $1,100 = $99,000,000 million dollars to guard the pipeline. One wonders: for what length of time? A week? A month? A year?

No wonder they're fighting over that fee.

Again, this is ONE MORE REASON why we will not succeed in Iraq. We're hemorrhaging money to try to secure the oil. We will be broke before we see any progress. It's a mirage.

Like the kind outside Phoenix. You're driving towards the foothills. They look so close. You want to go there & check out the scenery. 2 hours later, you're still driving and the foothills seem to have moved further back. That's what I'm talking about.