Page 9 - MEOG Week 19 2021

MEOG PERFORMANCE MEOG

More attacks on Iraqi oilfields

IRAQ ISLAMIC State (IS) militants claimed respon- This week’s statement from the MoO added:
sibility last week for attacks on two oil wells in “These desperate attempts will not discourage or
northern Iraq as violence against Iraqi and Kurd- stop oil workers from doing their utmost to pro-
ish forces increases. tect oil wealth and work to sustain and increase
The latest attack used explosives to target production in the public interest.”
wells 177 and 183 at the Bai Hassan oilfield Output from the NOC-operated fields has at
which, together with the Avana Dome of the various points been diverted towards the Baiji
Kirkuk field and Baba Gurgur, are estimated to refinery near Tikrit and exported through the
produce around 370,000 barrels per day (bpd), Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline (also known as the
contributing a significant amount of state-owned Iraq-Turkey pipeline) or through the Kurdistan
North Oil Co. (NOC’s) total output. Regional Government (KRG) owned conduit,
The Ministry of Oil (MoO) in Baghdad which connects to the Ceyhan line at the Fish-
announced on May 9 that it had extinguished khabour border crossing.
the second fire, with the first having been put out Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces took control
on May 5. of the fields in 2014 ostensibly to prevent them
It added that the attacks had not affected oil falling into the hands of IS and exported the out-
production but had resulted in “the martyrdom put independently of Iraq’s oil marketer SOMO,
and wounding of a number of security forces and much to the ire of Baghdad, which resumed
energy police”. control of the assets in 2017 following the Erbil’s
IS militants also claimed responsibility for efforts to seek independence and Iraq’s declara-
detonating two bombs near Bai Hassan around tion of victory over IS. At that point, flows from
three weeks earlier, though this attack “did not the field through the conduit to Ceyhan ceased,
cause a fire or damage, affect production or stop with the KRG saying its output and exports had
oil pumping”, according to NOC. fallen by 250,000 bpd as a result.
China’s Xinhua quoted a provincial police NOC then began deploying crude for domes-
source as saying that there had been “minor tic refining, with small volumes temporarily
casualties”. trucked to Iran.™

Week 19 12•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9