Satellite images suggest Kuwait stealing oil from Iraq??

[9215]

This is dated material. Does anybody else know about this? This sounds like Rumailiah oil being stolen.

Wonder if its Halliburton's handiwork.


By Billy Cox
FLORIDA TODAY

On May 25, while scanning the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program images pipelined into his desktop from 450 miles in orbit, Hank Brandli skidded at a nighttime photo of Iraq. It looked familiar. But not exactly.
Brandli retrieved another DMSP image he'd archived from May 3. He compared the two. The most recent photo showed a blazing corridor of light running the length of Kuwait, south to north, all the way to the Iraqi border. The image wasn't there on May 3.
"It's going right up to Iraq's oil fields," says the retired Air Force colonel from his home in Palm Bay. "Maybe I'm full of s---. Maybe all they're doing is building a highway to put in McDonald's and sell hamburgers. But why go that way? I think we're in bed with Kuwait. I think we're pumping oil out of Iraq to pay for this war."
That's an audacious observation. Especially considering those labyrinthine lines of exasperated motorists waiting to gas up at the fuel pumps in Baghdad. Not to mention the fact that Iraq's infrastructure officially won't be capable of exporting oil for another week or so.

snip

"With night photos, you can distinguish natural gas burnoff, which looks globular, from city lights. And suddenly, over just a few weeks, we've got this straight line of lights leading all the way to those beautiful wells in southeastern Iraq.
"If you're building pipelines, you've got to have power, you've got to have light -- trucks and personnel and food and all sorts of support. If I had to bet, I'd say it looks like we're running Iraqi oil through Kuwait. It would make sense, because Kuwait's got its infrastructure intact."
At the State Department in Washington, D.C., David Staples on the Future of Iraqi Projects desk says he doesn't know if Iraq's oil is flowing into Kuwait. He referred the query to the Defense Department. A DoD spokesman suggested contacting the Office of Coalition of Provisional Authority (OCPA) in Baghdad. OCPA was not immediately available for comment.
In Indialantic, retired Air Force Col. Hyko Gayikian isn't sure what to make of Brandli's speculation. He wonders if maybe Kuwait's lights were pre-existing features that were temporarily shut down during the war. (Brandli says no, that he checked other photos prior to the March war campaign and could find no such lights.)
Either way, Gayikian has nothing but praise for Brandli's abilities. He was Brandli's commander at the Southeast Asia Tactical Forecast Center's intelligence compound in South Vietnam beginning in 1966. "Hank is one of the most knowledgeable people in satellite meteorology I've ever known," Gayikian says. "He's a real pro, and he's stuck with it. He'll always call to tell me about unusual satellite pictures he's just gotten his hands on."
As the Weatherwise article makes clear, Brandli's judgment was a valued Pentagon asset during the Vietnam era. But the clandestine nature of his work often thrust him into thorny dilemmas, none more profound than the Apollo 11 splashdown in 1969.

snip

Under strict orders to share his photos with no one without "Special Access" badges, Brandli, then a meteorologist at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, felt there was no time to work through the tedious chain of bureaucracy. So he briefed Fleet Weather Central commander Capt. Sam Houston in a parking lot, took him into the vault and showed him the screaming eagle photos.

snip

By no accident, then, does Brandli view the world, including politics, through satellite meteorology. One of his favorite photos is a DMSP nighttime view of North Korea. Wedged against the glittering metropolitan constellations of China, South Korea and Japan, the totalitarian state of Kim Jong Il is little more than a year-zero black hole.
"It's amazing to think about going to war with a country that's so bloody poor," Brandli says. "It's empty, it's vacant. They've got nothing. Not even electricity."


http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/peoplestoryA1172A.htm
Meteorologist's work featured in national weather magazine

[T Wolf]

1. So, shouldn't Georgie-boy

now invade Kuwait? He has to protect Unka Dick's investment.

[hang a left]

2. I remember reading this months ago.

Never heard anything more about it.

[cosmicdot]

6. ditto

Doesn't Halliburton use the technology, or provide the equipment to do such diagnal operating 'applications'?

it's almost too much to keep up with, and we can be easily distracted with daily Corporate Media and its antics

[Sandpiper]

3. Wasn't this one of the reasons

Why SH invaded Kuwait?

[9215]

4. Yep. Kuwait was angledrilling into Iraq's Rumailiah

oil field. Very suspicious if you ask me.

I'm going to fire this off to Cong. Henry Waxman.

[Az]

5. Yep

It was the reason Saddam wanted to go after Kuwait. They claimed Kuwait was slant drilling into their oil fields. They massed on the Kuwait border, waited for the US to greenlight the attack and then stomped on them. Then of course PNAC tried to use this as the their "Pearl Harbor" event. It wasn't close enough to get their global domination plans through congress though.

[RapidCreek]

16. Yes that was the reason he gave....

that Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil. Funny how that story died on the vine.

RC

[LeahMira]

7. I think it's called slant drilling...

... and it's why there was so much made of Iraq invading Kuwait.

Saddam is no angel, but drilling under the border to get at another nation's resources and steal them without paying would seem to be a violation of the law, no?

I really do hope Saddam gets his day in a free court so all these things that have been hidden can come out.

[hang a left]

8. And if they are slant drilling from Kuwait......

then who is taking the oil?

[eissa]

17. You got it

Angel or not, I don't know of many world leaders that would look the other way when their neighbor is outright stealing their resources. But now that the bogeyman is gone, we're all safe.....right?

[plurality]

9. Not a surprise

Kuwait was stealing Iraq's oil in 1990 bringing on Saddam's invasion. Why wouldn't they restrat this operation now that they no longer have to fear reprisal from Saddam.

[9215]

10. Halliburton is the inclination drilling king

Back in 2000 I found this info on Halliburton's main page. After I cited it in connection with the pre-war angledrilling into Rumailiah it was pulled from the site.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A235-2000Jul28.html

August 19, 2000


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 18, 2000 HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES PARTICIPATES IN DRILLING WORLD RECORD INCLINATION WELL DALLAS, Texas - Baroid Drilling Fluids, a product service line of Halliburton Energy Services, participated in the successful drilling of one of the world’s most extreme inclination wells in the South China Sea off Brunei, drilling to an angle of 164.7 degrees. Utilizing Baroid’s PETROFREE drilling fluid system, the Operator drilled several wells that have set both local and corporate world records while minimizing risks to the environment. Halliburton Energy Services is a business unit of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL). For the Brunei well, Baroid’s PETROFREE vegetable ester based system was selected as the best option because of its excellent inherent lubricity and hole cleaning characteristics, as well as its superior toxicity and biodegradability performance. Rotary steerable technology was used, in conjunction with PETROFREE, to first drill the development portion of the well and then to drill the field delineation portions. Using this process, the operator was saved the time and cost of drilling additional conventional exploration or delineation wells. The savings coupled with the environmentally responsible nature of the fluid limited the operation’s influence on the local environment. “We are thrilled to be a part of this world record setting success.

This is another example of how cooperation and communication between partners, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly products, and the ability to make real time changes can optimize our customers’ reservoir performance,” said Jody Powers, president, Halliburton Energy Services. Although initial plans were not set to drill at such an extreme inclination, geologists on-site requested the alteration to intersect a particular formation early, increasing the inclination to approximately 160 degrees. The successful use of PETROFREE at the site further demonstrated the product’s superior hole cleaning and lubricity characteristics. The calculated coefficient of friction at Total Depth (TD) - 5,730 meters (18,794 feet) - was 0.21 to 0.22. The maximum Total Vertical Depth (TVD) was approximately 2,918 meters (9,571 feet) and the well was at 90 degrees or higher since 2,900 meters (9,512 feet) Measured Depth (MD). In addition to the PETROFREE drilling fluid, Baroid’s DFG+Win Hydraulics and Downhole Rheology modeling software package was used to ensure that surface rheology data accurately reflected down hole requirements for hole cleaning and cuttings transport. At TD the hole was circulated until the shakers cleaned up and the bit was pulled without pumping or back reaming. Due to the fact that there were no constraints on torque and drag levels, the well could easily have been drilled further, if the angle had been increased a further 15.3 degrees it would be drilling vertically upwards back towards the surface. Halliburton Energy Services provides products, services, and integrated solutions for oil and gas exploration, development, and production. Capabilities range from initial evaluation of producing formations to drilling, completion, production enhancement, and well maintenance - for a single well or an entire field. With more than 300 service centers in more than 90 countries, Halliburton possesses the global perspective that is increasingly important for energy exploration and production. Founded in 1919, Halliburton Company is the world’s leading diversified energy services, engineering, energy equipment, construction, and maintenance company. In 1999, Halliburton’s consolidated revenues were $14.9 billion and it conducted business with a workforce of approximately 100,000 in more than 120 countries.

Contact: Wendy Hall Halliburton Company Public Relations 713.676.5227 [e-mail]
August 18, 2000

[Peregrine]

11. A couple months ago I was talking to a Syrian

He was telling me the Syrian take on US/Iraq. He was saying that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (Gulf War I) was because Kuwait had begun drilling for oil in Iraq (not slant drilling, but actual drilling in Iraq). He said that Iraq and Kuwait had an agreement not to drill in a zone along their boarder, but Kuwait crossed the boarder and began drilling and constructing pipelines back to Kuwait.

He said the US would make a big step in reparing our image in the middle east by ending our support of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi gov't has been implicated in almost all political scandals, assassinations, and coup attempts in the other arab countries. He said that Syrians as well as most other arabs consider Saudi Arabia as a terrorist nation.

[9215]

12. I heard this too.

Saddam asked then ambassador April Glaspie to go to the border and he would show this happening. Shortly after that Glaspie made here famous statement about the US "having no opinion on Arab border disputes".

[Greyskye]

13. Any connection to...

I remember an article that I read on DU, which referrenced an Austrailian journalist (TV?) who had documented massive convoys of tanker trucks heading out of Iraq. We're talking the "as far as the eye can see" version of massive here. I've searched the DU archives, as well as Google, but haven't been able to find links.

Anyone remember this?

[loudnclear]

14. This was one of the reasons Saddam invaded Kuwait...the story was burried

It's called "slant drilling." It was the basis for the invasion of Kuwait that started Desert Storm. The US knew this and at the time found no problem with what Saddam proposed to do. Saddam presented the evidence in open forums internationally but as the press world-wide is controlled by PNACers and neocons, this message was never widely discussed. Instead, Saddam was made to look like a maurauding terrorist who was invading Kuwait for no reason. There were two reason Saddam gave: One to stop the "slant drilling" and to restore Kuwait back to Iraq proper from where it was lopped off thanks to the Brits.

[SoCalDem]

15. We encouraged Saddam to war with Iran

and I think our govt was a bit miffed at him that the war ended 8 yrs later in a a draw.. I think we had hoped that he would beat Iran, and then WE could again gain influence over BOTH countries..

He also overstepped his boundaries with the "gassing" incident, and we could no longer "support him"..at least publicly...He didn't follow the script..THAT was his biggest offense, as far as the US was concerned...Does ANYONE really think that gassing the Kurds really "bothered" the US govt?? We knowingly experimented on poor black people, we deliberately exposed soldiers to radiation (to see what would happen).. Gassing a bunch of poor Iraqis was no biggie to our guys.. What pissed them off, is that it became PUBLIC knowledge WHEN it happened..

Our government could not ignore what happened once the international outrage started.. We HAD to cut Saddam loose.
GHWB saw the "war" as a way to "boost" his numbers and prove that he was no WIMP..He needed a reason, and we goaded Saddam into acting on the border issue.. We set him up.. He fell for it and GHWB proved he was not a wimp..

[tom_paine]

18. No, the BUSHEVIKS are stealing that oil, shipping through Kuwait

or perhaps, as has been suggested, Halliburton is just lsant-drilling Iraqi oil directly into Kuwait.

No, this is absolutely a Bushevik theft using their old chums, the Kuwaiti Intelligence Servces or such.

This is fuel for the Amermacht and more "money under the table" for Halliburton and Bechtel Fatguts.