Oil-rich Iraq wants to end gasoline imports

[leftchick]

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13556

Oil-rich Iraq pays 200 million dollars a month to import gasoline, according to oil officials who believe easy savings can be made by increasing the country's refining capacity and ending smuggling.

As soon as he took up his post on May 8, Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum called on workers to push production at Iraq's three main refineries.

"We have a plan to increase refining," Ulum said in a newspaper earlier this week. "We want to stop the imports."


Ironically, the country used to produce more than enough to meet its needs before the US-led invasion in March 2003, Dathar al-Khashab, manager of the flagship Dura refinery on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, said.

That amounted to 15 million litres (4 million gallons) a day.

...Lots of luck...

<snip>

2005
186. January 1 - attack on a pipeline from Kirkuk to Bayji.
187. January 1 - attack on a pipeline linking the southern cities of Karbala and Hillah, 46 miles south of Baghdad near the Musabayb power station.
188. January 7 - attack on gas pipeline 9 miles north of Tikrit.
189. January 8 - attack on an oil pipeline running from northern fields to Bayji in the Safra area, 43 miles southwest of Kirkuk. Two guard posts for an oil protection force were also blown up around the area and one guard was wounded.
190. January 8 - attack on a gas pipeline in the Fatha area near Bayji.
191. January 11 - 2:00am rocket attack on a gas pipeline that runs to Bayji near the Fatha production station.
192. January 11 - 6:30am attack on an oil pipeline that runs to Bayji in the Zegheitoun area, 35 miles southwest of Kirkuk. The pipeline had just been brought online on January 9th.
193. January 13 - 10:30pm attack on oil pipeline near Fatha.
194. January 14 - improvised explosive device detonated after midnight damaging an oil pipeline near Bayji and sparking a large fire.
195. January 14 - attack on a pipeline linking Kirkuk and the Daura refinery, near Samarra.
196. January 14 - rocket attack on pipeline complex near Fatha sparked large blaze.
197. January 17 - a bomb blew off a section of a pipeline in Fatha.
198. January 21 - 07:00am attack on pipeline in the al-Tharthar region 12 miles south of Samarra interrupted the flow of oil to the Bayji refinery.
199. February 2 - attack on oil pipeline connecting Bayji refinery to Daura refinery. The attack took place near Samarra.
200. Fabruary 5 - attack on a cluster of eight pipelines west of Samarra connecting the Bayji and Daura refineries.
201. February 6 - attack on pipeline carrying crude oil from Kirkuk to Bayji.
202. February 9 - attack on a gas pipeline before dawn in Fatha, about 15 miles north of Bayji.
203. February 9 - rocket attack on a pipeline linking Kirkuk to Bayji.
204. February 13 - 10:00pm attack on oil pipeline at the al-Dibbis oil field 31 miles north of Kirkuk.
205. February 14 - another attack on oil pipeline at al-Dibbis.
206. February 16 - attack on pipeline carrying crude from Kirkuk to Bayji near Fatha.
207. February 16 - attack on pipeline carrying crude from Kirkuk to Daura refinery.
208. February 16 - another attack on pipeline near Fatha.
209. February 16 - attack on pipeline in the Bajwan area, northwest of Kirkuk.
210. February 16 - gunmen killed Colonel Ibrahim Ahmed in charge of pipeline security. The killing took place at Ajeel west of Kirkuk.
211. February 25 - late night attack on a pipeline connecting the Dibbis oil fields with Kirkuk.
212. March 2 - 10pm attack on gas pipeline to Bayji near Al-Safra 30 miles west of Kirkuk caused the shutdown of two of the Bayji power station's four turbines.
213. March 3 - attack on a gas pipeline that links Kirkuk to Dibbis.
214. March 7 - attack on pipeline near Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad.
215. March 8 - 1pm attack on oil pipeline feeding Al-Daura refinery near Jorf al-Sakhr, 35 miles south of Baghdad.
216. March 9 - attack on oil pipeline feeding the Daura refinery in Jorf al-Sakhr, 46 miles south of Baghdad.
217. March 12 - attack on oil pipeline connecting Bayji and Daura in Al-Tharthar, near Samarra.
218. March 12 - Rocket-propelled grenades were launched at a pipeline running from Kirkuk to Daura.
219. March 15 - attack on oil pipeline in Fatha which carries crude from Kirkuk to Bayji.
220. March 25 - attack on oil pipeline which connects Iraq northern oilfields with the Daura refinery.
221. March 27 - 9:00am attack on oil pipeline which carries crude from Kirkuk to Bayji. Repairs on the line had just been completed the day before.
222. April 4 - attack on pipeline running through the Riyad area near Bayji.
223. April 13 - bomb on oil pipeline near Kirkuk killed an Iraqi oil security chief and eight of his men, who were in the process of defusing another explosive device, and sparked a fire on the pipeline.
224. April 17 - attack near Fatha on oil pipeline from Kirkuk to the Bayji refinery.
225. April 18 - twin blasts at an internal oil pipeline near Kirkuk.
226. April 25 - insurgents blew up pumps used for domestic supplies near Bay Hassam, 19 miles west of Kirkuk.
227. May 4 - attack on an oil pipeline that links northern Kirkuk oil fields to Baghdad. The attack took place near Balad.
228. May 10 - attack on an oil pipeline complex near Kirkuk.
229. May 11 - a mortar round struck the Iraqi Oil Ministry complex in Baghdad.
230. May 11 - three bombs were planted on different parts of the oil pipeline in Kirkuk's Dibiz district. Two of the three exploded, heavily damaging the pipeline.
231. May 11 - attack on an oil pipeline near Bayji.
232. May 11 - a bomb exploded at Iraq’s largest fertilizer plant in Basra, killing one person and wounding 23. The blast set fire to a gas pipeline.
233. May 11 - a bomb was planted near the oil ministry in central Baghdad.
234. May 12 - an insurgent blew himself up as he tried to sabotage an oil pipeline near Kirkuk.
235. May 13 - attack on the Athana pumping station that feeds the northern pipeline.

http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm

[LynnTheDem]

1. Iraq used to produce more than enough BEFORE bush INVADED...

That's bush! Biggest fuck-up in world history. And he's DAMN PROUD of it!

[dbt]

2. So whatcha reckon, LTD?

Could one of the goals of bu$hler's War For Profit have been the disruption of Iraqi gasoline supplies? You know, just any little thing to help run up prices and further enrich his Big Oil benefactors?

I put nothing past the Regime. NOTHING.

[LynnTheDem]

3. I think:

I put nothing past the Regime. NOTHING.

*Your perfect remark needed no improvements other than BIG LETTERS. :D

[Frederik]

4. Exxon Mobil's profits last year

A net income of $25 billion isn't all that bad. They don't even know what to do with all the cash. The others aren't far behind.