Pipeline Blast Cuts Iraq's Southern Oil Exports

[Teaser]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3067987

The Iraqi South Oil Company did not specify where and when the explosions took place.

The company blamed loyalists of former President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida elements for the attacks.

Iraq exports 1.65 million barrels per day from the south and another 200,000 barrels per day from the north through Turkey.

Coalition officials fear that insurgents will step up attacks on infrastructure targets in the run-up to the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to undermine public confidence both in the US occupation authority and the new regime.

Iraq’s oil pipelines are frequently attacked.

You see our dilemma. Pull back troops and we get fewer killed, but the resistance targets the infrastructure and local security more, creating chaos. Put troops back into the field and we get less chaos but more KIAs.


what a mess.

[demnan]

1. Don't those pipelines suffer an attack just about every day?

Aren't the high prices for oil/gas in this country due to the fact that our government didn't account for the fact that the Iraqis would blow these up to spite us?

[Raster]

6. the neocons believed everyone would throw flowers at us...

...instead it's hand grenades! Oooppss, My Bad.

[Trajan]

2. You would have thought that this bunch of brilliant Neocons ...

would have planned their 'Cakewalk' a little better ...

THIS cakewalk is a tad burnt .... and fallin apart all crumbly ....

Perhaps some sticky 'LIE Icing" can patch it back together ?? ...

HEy ? .. they can try ....

[Aidoneus]

3. Theft temporarily slowed down

I would dispute the formula that "troops back into the field"="less chaos".

[Teaser]

15. I think it does equal less chaos.

It's not a big difference, but there does seem to be one.
I looked a coupla months ago. During big offensive operations, pipeline bombings slowed slightly and police assassinations were down. It's only because *we* become the targets then. However, remove us as the target and the resistance simply selects new ones.

[Aidoneus]

16. Ok, on those grounds I might agree..

The presence of the occupyers does tend to bring most of the people around to lining up behind a single idea--that of removing the former--, which I would suppose is as clear an antithesis to "chaos" as is logically possible..

What I was hinting at was the usual round of death & destruction that usually follows the stepped up presence of US forces in any particular location.

[Bozita]

4. This ISN'T a quagmire? ... Maybe it's a Catch-22?

But we're winning.

Dubya says so.

[amber dog democrat]

14. and we are bringing them FREEDOM too !

Don't you wonder how historians will describe this adventure years from now?

[Dhalgren]

5. I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to.

Where is all of the money going that is being made with almost 2 million blls. of oil being pumped per day? I have "Googled" and even gone library digging and I still can't find a real answer.
Iraq will never be secure as long as US troops are in country, period. Why all these people can't seem to get this simple fact is beyond me.

[tlcandie]

7. I'm not sure exactly who is blowing these up and creating all the

disturbances...

I'm not sure it isn't this regime because I can't see them wanting an end to this. :shrug: All this chaos and terror, terror, terror keeps all good 'lil US citizens at bay along with freedom of speech in the can!

The more fear and chaos, the more power they can have and enforce. So, I think I would be looking to find DEFINITES about exactly who it is causing all this disruption.

This isn't meant specifically towards you Dhalgren, I'm agreeing, but in a different way. The story on Halliburton and no clear system of accounting surely hits the nail on the head for this regime and no clear system of anything except making those $$$$! To hell with everything else!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Say they make a profit of $25 per barrel

that's $50 million per day - about $2 per person in Iraq. Given the chaos and amount of reconstruction needed, it's not huge.

[jmcgowanjm]

9. No $ is being made 'cause no oil is being exported

Like you, Dhalgren, I have been tracking this since the invasion.

The Kirkuk refinery has not processed a single barrel of crude oil since the invasion.

What the cameras never show you is the constant stream of 4,310 contracted road tankers rushing refined oil into Iraq from Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Israel.

The basic monthly cost of importing oil to Iraq, designed to prevent all-out revolt by the Iraqi populace, is currently around US$210 million in official figures, but much higher when taking into account the massive quantity of product bushwhacked en route by the Republican Guard.

http://joevialls.altermedia.info/wecontrolamerica/oilscam.html

[Dhalgren]

10. So do you see the "attacks" on the pipeline

as being 'red herrings' and there is no oil in those pipelines? Has Halliburton capped those wells for future use? What is going on in the Iraqi oilfields? I think that there is a whole lot more to this than meets the eye. Someone somewhere is going to blow the lid off this thing and we will all be sorely surprized (not shocked - not us - but surprized).

[jmcgowanjm]

13. No, the Iraqis wait until they're filled, then shoot/explode

IMHO-We're being fought by intelligent people wanting
their country back.
To deprive the invaders of their reason for invading.

And I'm sure you know what it feels like to be w/out electricty for
a couple of days. And Baghdad is a major city.

These people could revolt at anytime.
Like yesterday w/ the GE contractors.

[jmcgowanjm]

12. And Baghdad's not getting more than 3hrs of AC/day

Capacity has been stuck in a range around 4,000 megawatts
for months. Not only is that less than during the
Saddam Hussein era, but it is also far below the
American promise of 6,000 megawatts. (And this before
400MW Bayji plant shutdown
along w/ Al Dura South of Baghdad.)

Even if that level is attained, demand is leapfrogging higher.
(I'm not an expert, but how can demand leapfrog over something
that's non existant.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/international/middleeast/14POWE.html?ex=1087790400&en=b3ea8ab4f92f207c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[Wright Patman]

11. I don't know either

but I know where the Iraqis themselves think the money's going--to Israel.

It is not denied that Israel expected Chalabi, the expected new leader of Iraq after all the parades welcoming him home had died down, to recognize it diplomatically and then reopen an oil pipeline between Mosul, Iraq, and Haifa, Israel.

This was one of the first dreams that died in the aftermath of the invasion turning sour.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. First stage in tracking it down: 'Development Fund for Iraq'

UN resolution 1483 set up the Development Fund for Iraq, which has received $8.1 billion from the old Oil-for-Food program; $10.6 billion from oil exports; $1 billion from repatriated funds; and a few other small bits and bobs.

So far, this has paid out $7.6 billion to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance; $2 billion to the Ministry of Oil; and smaller amounts to other ministries (and a few odd recipients like the US Army Corps of Engineers and the CPA Front Office). A total of $11.5 billion has been paid out.

Details here: http://www.cpa-iraq.org/budget/DFI_11jun2004.xls

Overseeing the Fund is the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (UN, Arab Fund, IMF, World Bank), but they just seem to make sure it's audited, ie no-one steals money while it's in the DFI accounts.

The CPA describe the money paid as:
"To date, disbursements from the DFI have been in support of the wheat purchase program, the currency exchange program, the electricity and oil infrastructure programs, equipment for Iraqis security forces, and for Iraqi civil service salaries and ministry budget operations."
but doesn't make clear what is what - why should the Ministry of Finance receive so much money? Normally it would give money to the other ministries, you'd think - but they get small amounts direct from the DFI. Transparent it ain't, although that's what they claim it is.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Next stage: George Soros on the case

he has set up Iraq Revenue Watch. There's a briefing out today, title Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Giving Away Oil Revenue Billions Before Transition. Doesn't that fill you with confidence?

"In its latest available minutes,the Program Review Board on May 15 approved nearly $2 billion in expenditures for a host of poorly planned projects. It does not appear that all relevant ministries were consulted in the development of these funding requests.However,the new Iraqi government will have little choice but to honor the commitments."

[bpilgrim]

18. how many troops have we pulled out so far?

0

the only dilemma i see is that ALLEGEDLY we want PEACE, PROSPERITY and SECURITY in the region but our very presence and behavior undermine that lofty goal.

the japanese had the same goals in china (nanking), VIETNAM (them and US) and the rest of asia (GEACPS) coincidentally the also had the same problems we had in acheiving it and also tried to deal with it by BRUTE FORCE and ILLEGAL COMBATANT STATUS to jusity their SIMULAR ATROCITIES.

:shrug:

peace