"The engineers have been in Basra since last September, mainly to help in civil reconstruction around the southern Iraqi city. The contingent was rotated in March and the commitment was scheduled to end this month, with the proviso they would come out earlier if they were no longer able to do their work."
Not the best source on this issue, but dateline yesterday it says:
"Iraq has shut down its main oil export pipeline in the south, after intelligence indicating that shiite militiamen might attack infrastructure, an Iraqi oil official said Saturday."
"'The situation in Basra is bad. Management ordered the pipeline shut late yesterday (Friday),'" said an oil official of Iraq's Southern Oil Company, who declined to give his name.
"He added that 'very few people showed up to work again today. The feeling is it is not wise to challenge Sadr's followers,' referring to the "uprising" in central and southern Iraq by Mehdi Army militia led by anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr."
Thsi contradicts an 9/9 AP report: "Iraqi oil exports were flowing at maximum levels of 1.85 million barrels a day from southern Iraq, while oil flowing from the north was less than normal due to an attack earlier this week, oil officials said Thursday."
"'The oil exports are running at their normal levels of 1.85 million barrels a day from Basra and Khor Amaya, " said Samir Jassim of the South Oil Co. "We expect that exports levels would rise to 1.9 or 2 millions barrels if the security situation continue to be stable and no sabotage conducted on the pipelines.'"
"This is a sensible decision, given that the soldiers have been unable to carry out the work they were sent to Basra to do because of the spread in violent attacks," said NZ First defence spokesman Ron Mark. [. . . ] "The deteriorating security situation in Iraq has meant that our troops have been virtually redundant over there"
altho I note, too, that this (which I hadn't read before) notes that the pipeline in Basra was bombed in June. Makes me wonder whether it's gotten worse, or never got better. ..
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timeasmymeasure
No reconstrcution, no engineers
Date: 2004-09-16 03:55 pm (UTC)Re: No reconstrcution, no engineers
Date: 2004-09-16 04:45 pm (UTC)Re: No reconstrcution, no engineers
Date: 2004-09-16 05:15 pm (UTC)"Iraq has shut down its main oil export pipeline in the south, after intelligence indicating that shiite militiamen might attack infrastructure, an Iraqi oil official said Saturday."
"'The situation in Basra is bad. Management ordered the pipeline shut late yesterday (Friday),'" said an oil official of Iraq's Southern Oil Company, who declined to give his name.
"He added that 'very few people showed up to work again today. The feeling is it is not wise to challenge Sadr's followers,' referring to the "uprising" in central and southern Iraq by Mehdi Army militia led by anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr."
"A spokesman of the Southern Oil Company confirmed that 'the production has been stopped since the start of the crisis and now we have stopped pumping too through the pipeline.'"
http://english.people.com.cn/200408/14/eng20040814_152976.html
Thsi contradicts an 9/9 AP report:
"Iraqi oil exports were flowing at maximum levels of 1.85 million barrels a day from southern Iraq, while oil flowing from the north was less than normal due to an attack earlier this week, oil officials said Thursday."
"'The oil exports are running at their normal levels of 1.85 million barrels a day from Basra and Khor Amaya, " said Samir Jassim of the South Oil Co. "We expect that exports levels would rise to 1.9 or 2 millions barrels if the security situation continue to be stable and no sabotage conducted on the pipelines.'"
In any case, an NZ minister says there are security problems in Basra:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3591947&thesection=news&thesubsection=general
"This is a sensible decision, given that the soldiers have been unable to carry out the work they were sent to Basra to do because of the spread in violent attacks," said NZ First defence spokesman Ron Mark.
[. . . ]
"The deteriorating security situation in Iraq has meant that our troops have been virtually redundant over there"
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 06:47 pm (UTC)Quartrly Report to Congress (July 2004)
http://globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/07/2207_exec_summary_final.pdf