This has been well documented by many sources. Tribal leaders have been seen to obstruct measures to protect the oil pipelines and one tribe, contracted to provide security for the oil pipelines, even used that contract to cover up their smuggling activities. As a result, nobody seems particularly keen to do anything about bringing smugglers to justice.
Article 111 of the Iraqi Constitution states that “oil and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq in all the regions and governorates” and one might assume that it was the responsibility of each provincial authority to protect the resources within their area.
But, as al-Talabani says, “we haven’t received any instructions from the central government to investigate such cases. That’s why oil smuggling has become commonplace in almost all oil producing provinces.”
Meanwhile officials from the North Oil Company, a state-run company within Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, deny the whole story. “I have never heard about this gang you’re talking about,” Hamid al-Saedi, the general manager of North Oil, told NIQASH in a brief statement.
All of which makes it difficult to know what is really going on with the oil smuggling gangs in Kirkuk. Then again this seems fairly typical for the oil smuggling in Iraq: there’s simply too much money involved for it to be easily eradicated.
Nonetheless Iraqi officials continue to insist it must be. Finally, the governor of Kirkuk, Najm al-Din Karim, told NIQASH that all local security apparatuses must intensify their efforts to police oil smuggling. “Anyone considering oil smuggling in Kirkuk will be punished,” Karim stated firmly.
(Source: Niqash)
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