BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Scores of Iraqi oil workers have been killed or maimed since last year’s invasion after they defied death threats and remained in their posts, Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban says.
“Personal threats are regularly made against us and many people have been lost, but we will not raise the white flag. We are raising output and fixing every pipeline that is blown up,” Ghadhban told a news conference on Thursday.
Among those killed were truck drivers distributing refined products and pipeline security guards. Several guards at the Basra refinery had their legs amputated earlier this month when rockets fell near their post, the minister said.
“I don’t think that there is an oil industry in the world that faces so much difficulty. Our headquarters alone have had several mortar rounds a day fall on it over the past two months,” said Ghadhban, a geologist who started working for the ministry more than 30 years ago.
Illustrating the reach of the attacks, Ghadhban said the 110,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dora refinery on the edge of Baghdad sometimes does not receive a drop of crude oil because the three pipelines feeding it from the east, north and south are blown up.
“We found 70 holes dug by thieves in one products pipeline in the south the other day,” he said.
DISRUPTIONS
The identity of the attackers remain vague and they have rarely been caught. Security officials say they include former Baath party members and foreign zealots.
The attacks have concentrated in Sunni Muslim areas, such as the northern city of Mosul, and the mixed Latifiya region south of Baghdad, where storage depots are located.
Jordanian militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has threatened to attack foreign trucks carrying gasoline imports from the north.
The ministry halted operations temporarily in the Mosul storage centre after several truck drivers were killed or abducted, oil officials said.
The attacks have disrupted refinery operations and lack of security hampered distribution. Iraq, home to one of the world’s largest oil reserves, used to export refined products before the 2003 Iraq war.
It now imports up to half its 20,000 litre a day gasoline requirement, Ghadhban said, adding it uses imports to cover 20 million litres a day of gas oil consumption, 8,000 litres a day of kerosene and 5,000 tonnes a day of liquefied petroleum gas.
The imports cost Iraq $200 million (109 million pounds) a month with product coming by truck from Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Syria, and through the Khor al-Zubeir terminal on the Gulf, he added.
On crude, Ghadhban said Iraq has the capacity to produce 2.8 million bpd, including 700,000 bpd from the northern Kirkuk fields, but actual output depends on the condition of the refineries and the pipeline network.
The minister said he expected capacity to rise to three million bpd next year.
