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April 29, 1998
THE CRUDE REALITIES OF SANCTIONS IN IRAQ They call the southern city of Basrah the "smiling face of Iraq,"... ...a well-deserved tribute given the remarkably warm and open attitude to visitors of Basrah's mainly Shia Muslim population. But just outside the city, along the borders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the sprawling desert oilfields -- Iraq's richest -- means the value of this region goes far beyond mere hospitality. The potential is vast, with a sophisticated and experienced state-owned company of managers, engineers and workers overseeing huge reserves. They control a complex grid of collection pipelines, gas extraction plants and, crucially, Iraq's only direct gateway to the outside crude oil market -- the pipeline running from the tip of the Fao peninsula into the waters of the Persian Gulf, and on to the El Bakr tanker-loading terminal. There's just a few small hitches in the program, and the soft-spoken engineer who takes this reporter for a tour of the Southern Iraq Oil Company's Zubayr pipeline pumping stations bears them with stoic pride. It's as though 48-year-old Jalil Majid is confident that his team will somehow overcome all the damage caused by the Gulf War and the international sanctions that have prevented them from importing the valves, pumps, switches and thousands of other components necessary to bring this system back to full pre-war capacity. "If we have the parts," he assures me, "we can do anything. We have the knowledge and expertise right here, and we want to rebuild." He can only shrug when I point out that it is international concern about the possible rebuilding of other systems, specifically, weapons systems, that has kept sanctions in place. In the uncommonly effective way that body language speaks for most civilians in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Jalil's dignified shrug says a lot: I'm an oil man, not a politician or a diplomat; don't get me into that discussion, please. It's only when we arrive at the immense, grotesque remains of an oil storage tank destroyed by warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition forces in January of 1991 that Jalil's calm demeanor cracks. "What kind of people, what kind of thinking could do a thing like this ? There were no Iraqi army positions inside our depot, none whatever. What did they hope to do with all this destruction ?" Jalil says a turbine at Zubayr was blown apart by rocket fire on the very first day of the air campaign. Subsequent bombing in the following six weeks destroyed pumping stations, pipelines and storage facilities vital to keeping crude flowing, including 13 of the 16 huge storage tanks at Zubayr's southernmost compound. From here, oil from Iraq's southern fields used to be pumped in three directions: west through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea, north to Basrah's oil refineries and east to Fao and the Gulf. Now, with just three tanks and pumping stations remaining, and with Iraq's pipeline to Saudi Arabia blocked, Jalil's engineers direct their shrunken capacity only towards the tanker traffic in the Gulf. U.N.-supervised sanctions have prevented Iraq from buying and importing the new storage tanks, pipeline pumps and electrical components that would put the country's fields back on stream. This has become a red hot issue between Baghdad and the international community, because the U.N.'s decision to increase Iraq's oil sales allowance to $5.2 billion each six months has created the need for immediate repair of infrastructure such as Jalil's depots. Industry experts agree that as things stand, Iraq can deliver to market only about 60% of the new amount. "What can I do with no increased storage and pumping capacity ?" Jalil asks. He leads me into his control room deep within a bunker shielded by a small mountain of concrete and steel. "Look," he says, pointing at one of several empty component slots in his master control panels, "we need a new gauge for this booster pump -- impossible to buy because of the embargo. And here, all these others, I can't get the parts. So we wait and do the best we can with what we can salvage elsewhere." No doubt Jalil would be encouraged to see the jockeying now going on among foreign oil industry salesmen in Baghdad, six hours' drive to the north. According to diplomatic observers here and in Jordan, Russian and French companies have already prepared detailed redevelopment plans for Iraq's oil marketing system, with Italian and German firms in close pursuit. French officials are said to be keen to avoid the loss they suffered at the hands of American competitors after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, when U.S. oil companies won practically all the most valuable contracts to rebuild the Sheikdom's fields and pipelines. "The French have far less of a problem with Saddam's alleged intention to continue development of his weapons programs," says one experienced North American diplomat. "For them, business is business, and their move away from the U.S.-British hardline position on sanctions is proof of it." This unblushing policy shift by the Chirac government and executives of France's Elf-Aquitaine petroleum concern is perhaps understandable, since some of the same U.S. companies that beat them to all that reconstruction gold in Kuwait are rumoured to be lurking again in the shadows of the Gulf, ready to bid on any rebuilding in Iraq that a future relaxation of sanctions might afford. If that seems strange -- Americans helping Iraqis to pump oil -- remember: this is Iraq, 1998. Anything can happen. Back in Basrah in the comfort of the Sheraton Hotel (situated on the Shaat-Al-Arab waterway, fought for bitterly in the Iran-Iraq conflict and countless follies through centuries preceding) it is time for the local celebrations for Saddam Hussein's 61st birthday. But a force-four tempest comes up; the high winds chase the rather thin crowd of Ba'ath Party celebrants into the hotel dining room. Perhaps there they will encounter one of few parties of foreign visitors to the hotel -- the nine inspectors of the UNSCOM team from Baghdad, in town for a routine visit to a so-called "recognized" site in their weapons inspection program. Things are never simple in Iraq, but seldom are they boring. |
| Next time... | will the sanctions program cause political blow-back for U.S. policy makers ?
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