15 Miles Offshore, Safeguarding Iraq's Oil Lifeline

KHOR AL AMAYA OIL TERMINAL, Iraq, July 1 — The oil wealth that Iraq is counting on as its best hope for a stable future flows through rattling pipelines to lonely, rusting depots 15 miles offshore, so isolated that an armada of American, British and Australian warships is circling them to prevent the threat of waterborne suicide attackers.

Even little fishing dhows that ply the waters of the Persian Gulf have been guarded against, since attackers in three boats sped toward Khor al Amaya and its larger sister terminal, Al Basra, and blew themselves up on April 24.

The vulnerable site is crucial to Iraq's economic future, and an attack could be catastrophic to the environment as well as the Iraqi oil industry, American military and industry officials say.

"Every day I tell them — I say, look, guys, in the grand scheme of things there may be no other place where our armed forces are deployed that has a greater strategic importance," said Capt. Kurt Tidd, commander of the Fifth Fleet task force that is protecting the terminals, as he bounced over the waves on a small rigid-hulled inflatable boat toward the Khor terminal's platform.

The April attacks cost the lives of two American sailors and a coast guardsman but did not cause extensive damage to the terminals. The coordinated attacks served notice that someone with deep knowledge of the Iraqi oil industry has cast a malignant eye on its jugular.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said recently that sabotage attacks on pipelines crisscrossing Iraq's desert mainland had already cost the nation $200 million in lost revenue.

For a country with Iraq's profound social and political needs and devastated civil infrastructure, that cost is formidable. But a broken pipeline can be fixed in a few days — quite unlike any severe damage to the giant, isolated oil terminals, which are already in a state of seedy disrepair.

[Workers struggled Monday to repair a crucial pipeline shut down after sabotage over the weekend by looters, The Associated Press reported. Exports were cut nearly in half because of damage to the pipeline, which feeds the Basra and Khor al Amaya terminals.]

Since the two terminals reopened in March 2003 after the American-led invasion, 287 tankers had been filled in the deep waters at the two terminals as of late June. That accounted for 65.6 million metric tons of crude oil and revenue of more than $12 billion, according to figures provided by the Fifth Fleet, which is operating in the Persian Gulf.

This strangely disconnected place on the glittering waters of the gulf may in the end tell as much about the course of the war as the grim battles on the desert mainland.

The scale of the security effort indicates the American commitment. Captain Tidd can call into play some 20 ships and 2,000 sailors and other personnel, not to mention helicopters, advanced surveillance equipment and weaponry aboard the platforms themselves.

The task force tries to enforce "exclusion zones" of 2,000 meters, or more than a mile, around the terminals where traffic is no longer allowed.

"We kind of form a band of steel right around the exclusion zone," said Cmdr. Steven A. Mucklow of the Cushing, an American destroyer that is part of the task force.

Yet vessels from swarms of a hundred or more fishing and cargo boats still intrude. About once a week, some boat ignores the klaxons and radioed warnings from the patrolling ships, which then fire flares and warning shots across the vessel's bow.

Since April 24 no boat has motored directly at the platforms, and sailors say they are unsure whether the boats are testing the new defenses or just looking for a prime fishing spot.

"One of the challenges is to try to decide what is innocent behavior and what is potentially criminal or worse," said Capt. Adrian Cassar, commander of the Grafton, a British frigate in the task force.

Hanging over the entire effort is uncertainty about the wishes of the new Iraqi government. No high-ranking officials have visited the area, and Captain Tidd said his main Iraqi contacts were the local managers of the platforms.

"Our direction from our bosses," he said, referring to the Fifth Fleet's commanders, was, `Keep doing as you're doing until you're told otherwise.' "

A visit to the Khor al Amaya terminal begins with a 50-foot climb up from the water on an old rope ladder that is missing one of its wooden rungs.

Up top is a scene that could have come from the movie "Waterworld": misshapen catwalks with pieces of scrap metal tossed over gaping holes, heaps of parts from broken pumps and cranes; bullet holes and shell damage from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and the 1991 Persian Gulf war; a row of big pressure gauges on a series of pipes that read dead zero. A humbled Manitowoc 3900 crane looks as if it has not been painted in 30 years. It was once red.

The southern section of the platform is not used at all, because it was heavily damaged in one conflict or another. But elsewhere a black and red Indian tanker called the Gandhar is riding high in the water, taking on oil, patrolled by a lone man in a blue hard hat way up on the deck.

Amid the wrecked equipment and the welter of useless piping on the oil platform, it is hard to find the live pipeline that is feeding the tanker.

But finally, there it is: a dirty gray pipe sporting a pressure gauge that reads 40 pounds per square inch rather than zero. An ear to the pipe turns up a groaning, knocking noise, as if this great artery of wealth were in need of an angioplasty.

Followed backward, the pipe arches downward and plunges into the water around the barnacle-choked underbelly of the platform with no more ceremony or protection than a big sewage conduit might have.

"This is the Iraqi future trying to get on its feet," Captain Tidd said hopefully.

Nearby, one of just two Iraqi oil workers seen during the roughly two-hour visit was fishing off the side of one of the catwalks. But Iraqi security workers stopped two of the three boats involved in the April attack with a hail of gunfire and caused them to explode prematurely, and now there is plenty of American security visible here as well.

Joel Miranda, a 19-year-old sailor from Orlando, Fla., with a fresh white toothbrush emerging from a pocket in his flak jacket, can see bits of wrecked ships poking up from Iranian territorial waters from where he stands at a gun emplacement on the northern edge of the platform.

Just the week before, he said, he watched as a dhow crept inside the exclusion zone and did not turn back until a patrol boat fired 10 warning shots over its bow.

"To me it looked like someone testing us," he said, "to see how far we'd let him go."

The boat never got close enough for him to be authorized to fire his gun. "At 500 yards is where we take 'em out," he said.

Elsewhere on the platform, in an air-conditioned room jammed with electronics, two technicians keep track of 40 to 50 nearby boats simultaneously with radar, optical imagery and other equipment.

The sophistication and scale of the operation raises the question of when, or whether, the Iraqis can safely take over the job from the United States and its allies. A Fifth Fleet spokesman said the Iraqi navy effectively consisted of five Chinese-made patrol boats.

Two Iraqi officers were aboard the Cushing recently for training, and a fact sheet made available by United States Naval Forces Central Command said 200 Iraqis received training earlier this year for the newly formed Iraqi Coastal Defense Force.

The Iraqis have "an embryonic patrol capability," said Captain Cassar of the Grafton.

For now, said Sgt. Fergy Gask of the Royal Marines, who leads one of the teams that carries out boarding operations, the maritime operation reminds him of nothing more than Britain's struggle with the Irish Republican Army.

"We were doing a very similar job in Northern Ireland before we came out here," Sergeant Gask said. "Obviously it's going to be a very prolonged operation. But what isn't these days?"

Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Quartermaster Third Class Maurice Singleton of Miami, aboard the amphibious transport dock Shreveport, watched for suspicious boats that could threaten the two terminals in the Persian Gulf where Iraqi oil is pumped into tankers.

Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Sailors from the destroyer Cushing patrolled near the Basra oil terminal. From left: Gunner's Mate Brian Benson, Technician Mike Salibury, Technician Clinton Comer and Electrician David Linward.

Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Three sailors from the Shreveport patrolled the area on a small rigid-hulled inflatable boat.

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The April attacks cost the lives of two American sailors and a coast guardsman but did not cause extensive damage to the terminals.

The attacks didn't "cause extensive damage to the terminals" BECAUSE those three intervened and prevented the attack on the terminals and the people there... my cousin Michael was one of the sailors killed.

They spotted and boarded one of the boats and the terrorist set off the explosives ahead of time. We then blew the other two attack boats out of the water.

How I despise the New York Times...

Thanks for the great pics and article.

Just the week before, he said, he watched as a dhow crept inside the exclusion zone and did not turn back until a patrol boat fired 10 warning shots over its bow.
"To me it looked like someone testing us," he said, "to see how far we'd let him go."

It seems to me that the standard procedure in these cases would be to board these boats and jerk the crews around Big Time. If they are legit, the word will get around to stay the Hell away from the stations.

OK, the risk is getting some of our people blown up as has happened before. In that case, sink every damn one - the word will soon get around as above. Warning them off with shots across the bow each time will just keep the game going on and on and on.

I thought I read somewhere that they expected to only export $10 billion of Oil out of Iraq during the whole of the first year. Wonder how much is going out thru the North of Iraq. This is phenomenal, if this is true, they are going gangbusters!!!

Thanks for your kinds words... the three men were heroes who thwarted the intended attack on the platform and its occupants, not the clueless victims of a successful attack as the NYT portrays.

It's tragic enough our men our losing their lives over there... the NYT is papering over their courage and sacrifices.

Michael....

Indeed. Incredible, selfless work done by modest military professionals who are rarely recognized by the media and appreciated by them even less.

God bless Michael and your family. Your cousin is a hero.

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