Iraq oil pipeline vulnerable, analyst says

WASHINGTON, April 13 Iraq's oil pipelines are easy targets and hard to defend, though relatively easy to fix, according to an energy security analyst at the Eurasia Group.

"Pipelines are very easy to fix, it only takes a couple days to fix a bomb attack," said Greg Priddy, global energy analyst for the Washington-based business risk consulting firm. "But they are also very easy to hit and very hard to secure." UPI spoke to Priddy about the ongoing attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure. Last week a pipeline connecting the Rumailah oil field, Iraq's largest, to the southern infrastructure was attacked. Most of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves are in the south, and all of its 1.6 million barrels per day of exports flow through the port in Basra.

Fighting between Shiite factions, as well as a power struggle between gangs and oil and fuel smugglers, has increased violence in the area and threatens to affect the oil sector.

Production continues in Iraq's north, where one-third of Iraq's oil reserves are located, but exports have been virtually nonexistent since the war began.

The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to a port in Ceyhan, Turkey, is attacked so much by Sunni insurgents, they have basically given up on fixing it, Priddy said.

"It's simply a matter of they know it's going to get blown up as soon as they get it up and running, every time they do," he said. "So eventually you just reach a point where you can't keep it running." The pipeline attack in the south is rare because those fighting for power see the oil sector as a prize for the victor. But it could be a weapon for those losing the battle.

Where a refinery or any single structure can be guarded or barricaded, "you can't maintain a security perimeter around" a pipeline "and keep people away."

Copyright 2007 by UPI

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