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Oil industry security slow to develop in Iraq
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Oil industry security slow to develop in Iraq
Iraq's enviable oil and natural gas reserves have provided scant assistance to the country's reconstruction because of endemic levels of sabotage since 2003. The Iraqi hydrocarbons infrastructure is antiquated, fragile and completely reliant on a complex web of other infrastructural elements in the electrical, transportation and communications sectors, which makes it especially vulnerable. As a result, Iraqi oil exports fell to 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2005, the lowest since 2003.
There are many factors hindering the development of a coherent defence for the infrastructure, particularly the lightly defended pipelines. The lack of strategic focus results in a diffusion of resources when they might be concentrated on 300 km to 400 km of high-risk pipeline corridors rather than the entire 4,700 km system. Protective services lack detailed technical schemata of the infrastructure with which to create prioritised protection plans. In contrast, the insurgents often display an encyclopaedic knowledge of important nodes.
Looking ahead
Due to Iraq's tense factional and sectarian politics, the government is unlikely to address or resolve the root causes of infrastructure attacks in the near future. Instead, the emphasis is likely to remain on hard security solutions to the threat. Insurgents will continue to have plenty of reasons to strike infrastructure throughout 2006 and criminals will continue to see profit in oil smuggling as long as the government heavily subsidises oil and it can be sold for profit abroad.
Alongside other security forces, the Ministry of the Interior will develop four new Strategic Infrastructure Battalions to protect the pipelines. They will be supported by increasingly capable reconnaissance aircraft, which will initially be provided by private security contractor AirScan until the fledgling Iraqi Air Force overcomes initial problems with its small fleet of Seabird Seeker SB7L-360 multi-mission surveillance aircraft.
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