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CNN Live Saturday
Oil Pipelines Sabotaged in Iraq
Aired August 16, 2003 - 12:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: Now, on to the headlines from Iraq.
THOMAS ROBERTS, ANCHOR: Iraqi crude flowing to Turkey came to a very abrupt halt today. U.S. officials suspect a pipeline was sabotaged.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is keeping watch on this story for us in the Iraqi capital. She joins us now with more -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thomas, indeed, it's a key pipeline in the north that ties Kirkuk to the military port of Jihan (ph). Well, a fire erupted in the early hours of the morning and Iraqi officials are blaming saboteurs.
Here's Thamer Al Ghadbhan. He's the top Iraqi official at the oil ministry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THAMER AL GHADBHAN, ACTING IRAQI OIL MINISTER: The pipeline, as you might know, is buried underneath the ground and there's a sort of a soil about one meter on top of the surface of the pipeline. Our information that explosive has been used. OK? To damage the pipeline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: Now, that fire meant that they had to actually halt the flow of oil that's going to Turkey. That line, that pipeline was actually only reopened recently. And it's a big problem, of course, because Iraq and the U.S. officials here, part of the coalition authority, have been counting on oil exports to work on the rebuilding of Iraq or the post-war reconstruction.
Now, as somebody else spoke to reporters today, was the newly appointed deputy chief of police. He actually said that he would work very hard to bring those groups responsible for this crime to justice. He said, but he also called on the tribes in the area to help him lay a hand on those criminals, if you will, and help them protect the pipelines in the future -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym, do we know how long this pipeline will be offline?
BRAHIMI: It's not clear yet. They're working on it, but it seems that it will be several days, if not maybe a few weeks, before that pipeline is able to work again.
And again, it's a very big problem because, as you know, there's a big paradox in the fact Iraq has the world's second largest reserve, or so it's estimated, and yet it is at the time being in effect a poor country. And a lot of the reconstruction, a lot of what needs to be happening here, a lot of Iraqi and coalition officials will tell you is not happening because until they get the oil flow up and running, well, they're not going to be able to bring in enough money to do that -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym, real quickly before we let you go, what does this mean for other key pipelines? Are they just as susceptible as this one?
BRAHIMI: Well, definitely. It probably depends on the area but obviously there is a problem of security. The securing pipelines, securing Iraq's infrastructure as a whole is a problem.
Now, they've been trying to work on getting Iraqi police and Iraq civil defense course to get up and train to do that, but again, that's something that's just begun. And it's very, very important for the rest of the country to be able to follow -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym Brahimi, live for us in Baghdad, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 16, 2003 - 12:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: Now, on to the headlines from Iraq.
THOMAS ROBERTS, ANCHOR: Iraqi crude flowing to Turkey came to a very abrupt halt today. U.S. officials suspect a pipeline was sabotaged.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is keeping watch on this story for us in the Iraqi capital. She joins us now with more -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thomas, indeed, it's a key pipeline in the north that ties Kirkuk to the military port of Jihan (ph). Well, a fire erupted in the early hours of the morning and Iraqi officials are blaming saboteurs.
Here's Thamer Al Ghadbhan. He's the top Iraqi official at the oil ministry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THAMER AL GHADBHAN, ACTING IRAQI OIL MINISTER: The pipeline, as you might know, is buried underneath the ground and there's a sort of a soil about one meter on top of the surface of the pipeline. Our information that explosive has been used. OK? To damage the pipeline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: Now, that fire meant that they had to actually halt the flow of oil that's going to Turkey. That line, that pipeline was actually only reopened recently. And it's a big problem, of course, because Iraq and the U.S. officials here, part of the coalition authority, have been counting on oil exports to work on the rebuilding of Iraq or the post-war reconstruction.
Now, as somebody else spoke to reporters today, was the newly appointed deputy chief of police. He actually said that he would work very hard to bring those groups responsible for this crime to justice. He said, but he also called on the tribes in the area to help him lay a hand on those criminals, if you will, and help them protect the pipelines in the future -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym, do we know how long this pipeline will be offline?
BRAHIMI: It's not clear yet. They're working on it, but it seems that it will be several days, if not maybe a few weeks, before that pipeline is able to work again.
And again, it's a very big problem because, as you know, there's a big paradox in the fact Iraq has the world's second largest reserve, or so it's estimated, and yet it is at the time being in effect a poor country. And a lot of the reconstruction, a lot of what needs to be happening here, a lot of Iraqi and coalition officials will tell you is not happening because until they get the oil flow up and running, well, they're not going to be able to bring in enough money to do that -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym, real quickly before we let you go, what does this mean for other key pipelines? Are they just as susceptible as this one?
BRAHIMI: Well, definitely. It probably depends on the area but obviously there is a problem of security. The securing pipelines, securing Iraq's infrastructure as a whole is a problem.
Now, they've been trying to work on getting Iraqi police and Iraq civil defense course to get up and train to do that, but again, that's something that's just begun. And it's very, very important for the rest of the country to be able to follow -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: Rym Brahimi, live for us in Baghdad, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
