Iraq oil exports from north surge last year

NY Times:

An American agency monitoring reconstruction in Iraq said Friday that oil exports through Iraq’s northern pipeline rose more than tenfold over the past year, citing a sharp drop in attacks on the pipeline and new infrastructure built to protect it.

The agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said in a report for release on Saturday that there had been no insurgent attacks on the pipeline, which exports crude oil from northern Iraq to Turkey, since the American infrastructure project began last July.

As a result, crude oil exports from Iraq’s north rose from an average of 1 million barrels a month to more than 13 million, the report said. Nearly all of the Iraqi government’s revenue comes from oil exports, so the increased flow has direct implications for people here. The increased exports were worth $8 billion, the report said.

To protect the pipeline, berms, fences and guardhouses were built, and American soldiers patrol its 60-mile length. Iraqi guards monitor its perimeter; Iraq’s government has promised to commit almost 800 Iraqi soldiers to take over for the American patrols.

Ginger M. Cruz, the deputy inspector general, said the overall decline in violence in Iraq had helped account for the $34 million project’s success. The rise in oil exports marked a sharp turnaround from earlier years, when Sunni Arab insurgents staged relentless attacks on the pipeline, often stopping the flow of oil.

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That marks a great return on investment. Besides the $8 billion going to the Iraqis the additional crude on the market has helped keep oil prices from going even higher by increasing supply.

The Times reporter on this story was Sabrina Tavernise who was one of the first to notice that Anbar Sunnis where at war with al Qaeda even before the Anbar awakening. Months before the Sunnis rallied to the US side, she was embedded with Marines in Anbar and noticed a battle raging in the distance. When she asked the Marines what was going on they told her it was "red on red" action where the locals were fighting al Qaeda.

Later Col. McFarland's unit was able to bring the Sunni tribes into the fold and with the help of the surge they were able to drive al Qaeda out of Anbar. In the past week some liberal bloggers and news readers have suggested that McCain misstated the facts on the timing of the surge. What he was really referring to was the new counterinsurgency strategy which McFarland help lead in Iraq.

Tavernise is an excellent reporter. Perhaps someday she will republish that story and add it to the context of the surge and the US vicotry in Iraq.