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An innovative solution to pipeline security
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| 01 September 2004 |
By Richard Hubbell and Guy Martelle
RUSI/Jane's Homeland Security and Resilience Monitor examines a unique solution to the security problems plaguing Iraq's oil infrastructure.
The success of the US-financed effort to quickly rebuild Iraq is linked with that country's capability to deliver crude oil to international markets.
There has been no shortage of efforts to improve security for the pipelines and oil infrastructure. However, the growing level of attacks against the pipelines and associated infrastructure, carried out by terrorists and smugglers, has not only continued but has resulted in even more serious reductions in oil production. A series of attacks on pipelines in Iraq's southern export terminals in early July 2004 cut the level of exports to less than a million barrels per day, according to an official of the state-run Southern Oil Company.
Providing this protection is a very complicated task due to the vulnerability to sabotage of the easily accessible infrastructure along about 650km of pipeline, most of it unmonitored as it threads its way through vast stretches of empty desert. It is not feasible to have guards watching every metre of this massive structure and, despite the best efforts of US military personnel working alongside an expatriate-managed Iraqi guard force, there are still almost daily attacks on the pipeline or its infrastructure.
Traditional surveillance systems are not suited to the unique combination of isolated distances and well armed hostile forces that threaten the Iraqi pipeline.
The most promising solution to protect the pipeline seems to combine ancient and modern technologies: Crucial elements of such a system would involve the following:
* surveillance cameras equipped with scene-change detection capabilities that trigger an alarm and automatically record when triggered by motion in the field of view;
* audio and vibration sensors;
* solar panels to provide power for the system and charge batteries for operations at night and in inclement weather;
* transmitters to send surveillance data directly via a satellite network to monitoring sites; and
* an earth covering of the exposed pipeline.
This final element is essential, although it may seem simplistic. An covering of earth will force any attackers to dig their way through several metres before reaching their target, imposing delays which will give security forces precious time to respond to attacks before any damage is done to the pipeline itself.
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