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Oil
company says tribes it contracted to guard pipelines
are destroying them up to drum up more business.
The state-owned North Oil Company, NOC, alleges that
tribes paid to protect pipelines are behind many of
the attacks on them around the Kirkuk oil fields.
The tribes insist, however, that the government is
not doing enough to safeguard oil export routes.
Since a contract with a British security firm
expired in December, the NOC has been relying on 16
tribes in the Kirkuk area which it has contracted to
protect the pipeline network for a monthly fee.
The tribal forces complement the 1,500-strong Oil
Pipeline Protection Force which the government set
up earlier this year to guard the main northward
route from the Kirkuk fields to the Turkish oil
terminal of Ceyhan. This big pipeline should be able
to carry 800,000 barrels of oil per day, but because
of the attacks it is currently averaging an eighth
of that volume.
The al-Ubaid, an Arab tribe contracted by NOC, has
deployed some 150 to 200 of its men to look after a
number of pipelines that pass through seven villages
in the area. None has been attacked so far.
Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Asi of the al-Ubaid says
that where attacks occur in other areas around
Kirkuk, the fault lies with poor preparation by the
authorities.
“The Iraqi army is negligent and irresponsible about
fulfilling its duties, and that’s because of lack of
expertise,” al-Asi said.
Jasim al-Agidi, who gets 150,000 dinars a month –
around 100 US dollars – to stand guard at a pipeline
west of Kirkuk, said it was not people like him who
were responsible for sabotage, “The negligence…
comes from the NOC itself. And the guard shifts are
not around the clock.”
But an official at NOC, who did not want to be
named, said tribal members themselves were blowing
up the pipelines to boost the need for their
services and get their contracts renewed.
“The tribes have manipulated the situation and in
most cases, they themselves carry out the sabotage
attacks,” said the official.
Sheikh al-Asi said he was unaware of any cases where
members of tribes had been behind such attacks.
Competition among tribes to win a lucrative security
contract has done little for the already troubled
ethnic relations between Kurds and Arabs in the
Kirkuk area.
Sheikh Samir Muzhir al-Shahin of the al-Shummar,
another Arab tribe, complained that his people have
not been awarded any contracts even though there are
three pipelines running through the villages where
they live. Instead, the work has gone to Kurds who
were expelled from the area by Saddam Hussein but
have since returned.
“We met the contractors so as to get involved in the
protection work, but they turned us and said they
employed Kurds only,” said al-Shahin. “So there are
a lot of problems between us and the Kurds when it
comes to protecting the pipelines.”
Sheikh al-Asi of the al-Ubaid believes similar
anti-Arab discrimination takes place in the
recruitment process for the government’s pipeline
protection force.
“It would be better if they hired people from the
areas closest to the oil pipelines, since it would
encourage them to protect them more,” he said.
But Kurds counter with exactly the same claims as
this Arab chieftain – in reverse. Mohammed Kamal, a
Kurdish member of the Kirkuk regional council, says
it is Arabs and the Turkoman, a significant minority
in this area, who hold most of the important posts
in NOC.
As a result, claims Kamal, “Most of the oil
protection contracts have gone to Arabs, not Kurds,
[who] have been marginalised.”
Samah Samad is an IWPR trainee in Iraq.
www.iwpr.net
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