Oil protection force commander wounded, oil pipeline blasted

[Barrett808]

Source: Voices of Iraq

Oil protection force commander wounded, oil pipeline blasted
By Issam Tareq

Kirkuk, May 20, (VOI) – Gunmen attacked the oil protection force commander's patrol while others detonated an oil pipeline in an attack near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, an official security source said.

"The attack targeted a patrol of the 1st Infrastructure Brigade (Oil Protection) during the early hours of Sunday near the village of al-Safra on the Kirkuk-Baiji highway, (65 km) southwest of Kirkuk," a source from the Kirkuk police joint operations room told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

Oil facilities in Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, have been targets for acts of sabotage since 2003, which has resulted in irregular exportation of Iraqi oil from the Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Iraq's oil ministry is has tried, during 2007, to build a new pipeline for export via the provinces of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which enjoys relative security.

Losses and delays of Kirkuk's oil exports to Ceyhan, Turkey, are estimated at billions of dollars.

Read more: http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=44627&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[Kagemusha]

1. Maybe this means the oil protection people weren't still bought off?

For all the good it's apparently done.

[cliss]

2. Remember that?

I think it was back in 2003, when the pipe lines were getting blown up, on a daily basis. It seemed that every day, there was a new hole in the pipe line. It involved costly repairs, in the millions of dollars.

Then, I read about how the US decided to bribe the different chieftains of different regions in Iraq. They were going to get a "monthly allowance" to keep the pipeline safe.

It seemed to work! Things have been really quiet these past 2 years, I almost forgot about the pipeline.

And, now this.

[amandabeech]

3. The news just got to be old.

Not much oil has been transiting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline for some time.

Source: theoildrum.com. about a year ago. They are very, very reputable in the energy field.