However Kirkuk authorities deny this version of events. “This is not the first time that gangs have stolen Kirkuk’s oil,” the head of Kirkuk’s local council, Hassan Turan, says. “There are well organized groups stealing the oil and it is the duty of North Oil Company to protect their oil pipelines against theft.”
Turan also said that several of the oil smugglers involved have been arrested and that local courts are now handling the case.
However, strangely, Turan’s statement contradicts those from other authorities. “We received information that a gang had made a hole in the pipeline in Rahimawa and was stealing oil from this hole,” Ghalib Taha, one of the heads of the Rahimawa police station, says. “By the time the police had arrived at the garage the gang members had gone. We arrested the garage guard but we realised him because he didn’t know anything about the pipeline.”
Taha says that, while the police and even the citizens of Kirkuk, knew about the smugglers, the local council seemed reluctant to move against them. And because of this, Taha says, “we are not entitled to take any measures.”
Meanwhile the deputy chairperson of the Kirkuk council had an explanation for this. “The Ministry of Oil notified us in writing that we should not interfere in the work of oil institutions and that we should not interfere in any related issue or case,” Ribwar al-Talabani told NIQASH.
“This is why we didn’t conduct any investigations into this matter.”
Al-Talabani also brought up the dubious history of oil smuggling in Iraq. “In the past, each hole made in a pipeline was dedicated to a tribal leader - or to a political party,” he explains. “Everywhere else in the world, oil pipelines are well protected. But in Iraq, it’s a mess and nobody knows who exactly is stealing the oil.”
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