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Iraqi army busts 20 oil smugglers
Iraqi army busts 20 oil smugglers
Earth Times - [08/02/2007]


Iraqi security officials inspecting pipelines in the north arrested 20 alleged oil smugglers -- an expensive problem for the oil-rich country.

The Voices of Iraq news agency reports Iraqi army forces tasked with protecting Iraq's important and vulnerable oil infrastructure also took control of 10 oil tanks ready to be smuggled from Kirkuk.

The smugglers were arrested by a force from the 1st division entrusted with protecting oil facilities, a source who requested anonymity told VOI. The force was inspecting pipelines near the al-Riad district, 44 miles southwest of Kirkuk, which sits atop 11 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of oil reserves though production is around 2 million barrels a day, a half million less than pre-war levels and far below what experts say the country could produce.

Nearly its entire federal budget is funded by oil sales, so the growing smuggling racket is a real threat.

The Iraq Oil Ministry estimated last year that $700 million a month due to state coffers was being routed by smugglers. Estimates have now reached 200,000 barrels a day, though the country doesn't have the technology to exactly track overall productions, let alone smuggled crude.

The money is thought to be used for, among other things, funding the growing militia and insurgency.