Most of Iraq’s 7,000-km domestic oil pipeline network has been wrecked by attacks by terrorists and criminals, according to a senior government official.
Hashem Abid Al Ghafoor, director-general of the state-owned Iraqi Pipeline Co., told delegates at a natural gas conference in Cairo that 80% of Iraq’s pipelines linked to refineries and industrial and power plants has suffered “between 50-100% total destruction.”
The oil ministry has, for years, been working “under great difficulty” to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure, Al Ghafoor said, adding that over the past 3 months, the company has dealt with 2,000 explosions on lines.
According to Al Ghafoor, thieves have stripped some oil facilities down to their walls, severely impairing the country’s efforts to boost production to 6 million b/d from the current 2-2.4 million b/d.
Still, he said the government’s 6 million b/d target is “realistic and ambitious” since the security situation has improved. “The areas that we couldn’t reach (before), we are now able to reach. It’s an obvious improvement,” he said.
That’s largely because the Oil Police Directorate last year transitioned its 10 battalions to the ministry of interior and has since worked with the ministry of defense’s infrastructure battalions to protect the nation’s pipeline system.
“These additional security forces accounted for a 90% decrease in smuggling and transgression activities along the oil pipelines since 2007,” said the Multi-National Force-Iraq. “An additional seven battalions are planned to be formed in 2009, with a total of 22 battalions planned for fielding by 2012.”
In an October meeting with Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq commander Lieutenant General Frank Helmick, Oil Police Commander Major General Hamid outlined the short, medium, and long-term plans for taking over protection of the country’s oil pipelines and said, “Financial allocations are the biggest challenge.”
Meanwhile, the MNF-I said the general directorate of the oil police is being assisted by the ministry of interior transition team in planning for Iraq to assume security for oil facilities.
According to one MNF-I member, “There are challenges ahead, but it is obvious the oil police directorate and the MOI are in sync with each other and dedicated to approving the security situation in Iraq.”
Last month, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Aboud al-Shaikh Faris, held talks on how to facilitate the construction of a gas export pipeline from Iraq’s Akkas field to Syria.
Additionally, the two men discussed ways to repair the heavily damaged—and long-disused—crude pipeline between northern Iraq and Syria’s Mediterranean port of Banias.