Iraq Oil Pipeline Fix Could Take 2 Weeks

Reuters ^ | 08-17-03

[Brian S]

Sun August 17, 2003 09:15 AM ET By Michael Georgy

SHIRQAAT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's oil export pipeline to Turkey -- a crucial lifeline for the economy -- was still ablaze on Sunday, sending clouds of black smoke into the sky, and the U.S. Army said it could take two weeks to repair.

"The different reports we have seen have been anywhere from 10 days to two weeks, but they still have a lot to find out about what needs to be done," an Army spokesman told a news conference when asked how long it would take to fix the line.

At the site of the blaze at Shirqaat in the deserts of northern Iraq, flames poured from the breach in the pipeline on Sunday. Officials said on Saturday the blaze had been extinguished, but later reported instead that it had been "contained."

"It's still burning but under control," Major Josslyn Aberle of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division told Reuters at the American base in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. "The residual oil in the pipeline is burning up."

The pipeline started pumping oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on Wednesday for the first time since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein. But on Friday it was attacked.

Iraq's acting oil minister, Thamir Ghadhban, said on Saturday a bomb blast had caused the blaze.

Paul Bremer, the U.S. governor of Iraq, said sabotage was depriving the country of desperately needed funds.

"The irony is that Iraq is a rich country that is temporarily poor," he told the opening meeting of a committee set up to coordinate foreign aid for Iraq. "An event such as the explosion on the Kirkuk pipeline costs the Iraqi people $7 million a day and hurts the process of reconstruction."

Iraq had been exporting all of its oil from the south before the northern pipeline opened again. But the southern region is also facing problems. Theft of power lines has halved exports and threatens to bring sales to a standstill. (Additional reporting by Joseph Logan in Tikrit and Andrew Cawthorne in Baghdad)

[arete]

I'm happy to see that everything is under control in Iraq.

Richard W.

[Brian S]

This coming weeks energy markets will be interesting to watch with this development and the shutdown of 6 refineries due to the blackout.

[steve50]

Gas popped about 12 cents in my area already, I've seen reports of 20+ elsewhere.

Maybe the smugglers who were beating the oil for food program can manage to restore exports, under new management of course.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Where are the swaggering pro-war Wilsonian freepers who confidently claimed that Iraq had "more than enough" oil to pay the costs of occupation as well as the costs of reconstruction? Ah...the hubris of world policing.

[arete]

This coming weeks energy markets will be interesting to watch with this development and the shutdown of 6 refineries due to the blackout

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised to see gasoline prices jump a little this week. This is also the time when people start looking at heating oil supplies for the coming winter season and there is also a question about natural gas supplies.

Richard W.

[jaykay]

Iraq does have "more than enough" oil to pay the costs of occupation as well as the costs of reconstruction, if the Iraqis can refrain from attacking the pipelines, the repaired infrastructure, the workers doing the reconstruction and the troops trying to maintain order. Can those ifs ever happen without a brutal suppression of the Iraqi population? Is that suppression politically doable? My prediction is that a U.S. backed Iraqi military dictatorship will have to be installed to run Iraq with an iron fist. The Iraqis are not proving themselves capable of handling liberation.

[arete]

It would seem that Baghdad's water supply has also been turned off. All it took was two guy's with a bomb. This could go on and on.

Fires Disrupt Iraqi Oil Pipeline; Sabotage Blamed in Baghdad Water Cutoff

Richard W.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Dictatorship? A simpler solution is this: get the hell out. I don't want my daughter dying to protecting the Iraqi dictatorship you recommend.

[Austin Willard Wright]

It is interesting that the natural response to such problems by Wilsonian freepers is to embrace the get tough approach which we know, of course, has worked so well in Chechnyia.

[arete]

The Iraqis are not proving themselves capable of handling liberation.

I guess that depends on which side of the street you are sitting on. The Iraqis are doing what comes quite naturally to all people when foreign troops occupy their lands. You think that they are going to stand around and wait for us to put together a puppet regieme. Probably not.

Richard W.

[Pikamax]

"Where are the swaggering pro-war Wilsonian freepers who confidently claimed that Iraq had "more than enough" oil to pay the costs of occupation as well as the costs of reconstruction? Ah...the hubris of world policing."

well, they kinda have to get the oil pipes up and running, hard to do when people blow up your economy.

[Brian S]

Our prices (mid-michigan) popped about 2 weeks ago from $1.44 to $1.69. Surprisingly, they have maintained that level, for now, post blackout. I expect we will get smacked early this week with a spike.

Our only problems was the lines of people coming from Ann Arbor/Lansing to get gas, water, ice, etc. Yesterday, there was a bag of ice to be found.

[arete]

Dictatorship? A simpler solution is this: get the hell out. I don't want my daughter dying to protecting the Iraqi dictatorship you recommend.

Too late. We've already been sucked in up to our necks and there is no way out of the swamp. We just had to blindy rush right in there without any real idea or planning for the "now what" are we going to do.

Richard W.

[arete]

No Saddam, No WMD's, the local population is killing our soldiers and now blowing up their own infrastructure. Can Bush pronounce FUBAR

This straming pile of crap exercise had FUBAR written all over it from day one. "We're Americans. Aren't we great. We're here to 'liberate' you." Oh yeah, just ducky.

Richard W.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I support the troops until the 8 objectives of the original mission are completed and they are back home safe. They are doing an outstanding job, in spite of the 24/7 attempts to undermine their efforts by the (inter)national press (and other enemies).

8 Last two weeks in Iraq - a recap of our military's outstanding security efforts

  

8 Unapologetically Pro-Coalition News Links and Articles

[jaykay]

"I don't want my daughter dying to protecting the Iraqi dictatorship you recommend."

Nor do I. If Saddam's regime could have an Iraqi army and secret police to control his people, I'm sure the new guy can as well.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Sort of like Putin has in Chechnyia eh?

[Right_in_Virginia]

Where are the swaggering pro-war Wilsonian freepers who confidently claimed that Iraq had "more than enough" oil to pay the costs of occupation as well as the costs of reconstruction? Ah...the hubris of world policing.

Ah, with all due respect you're adding two and two and coming up with five.

This is a report on a terrorists blocking Iraq from accessing its oil...not the lack of it.