Guess Who's Sabotaging Iraq's Oil?

Awhile back, an unnamed executive of Hess Oil (Amerada Hess) offhandedly revealed that US TROOPS have been bombing Iraqi pipelines, and that, oddly, there was little interest in getting the oil flowing again. Cui bono? Due to conditions in Iraq, the cost of petroleum is at $45+ a barrel and Bush-friendly Big Oil is raking in incredible profits ...
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http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntm42095.htm
Volume 9, Issue #11 - May 18, 2004

MANY IRAQI PILELINE ATTACKS GO UNREPORTED

... An executive of Hess Oil confirmed, "These security arrangements aren't working, nor are they preventing sabotage. The pipelines remain very vulnerable, and the attacks on pipelines simply aren't being reported.”

In fact, Luft claimed that the pipeline attacks are on the increase. After staging more than 100 major attacks on pipelines in northern Iraq, terrorists last month began to hit pipelines in southern Iraq, near Basra. Another problem besetting the system is the slowness on the part of US authorities in repairing wartime damage to the system, according to US intelligence officials.

The Hess executive claimed that in April of last year, US AIR FORCE planes bombed the Al Fatha Bridge over a tributary of the Tigris River near the Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk. According to the Hess executives, whose account was confirmed by US intelligence officials, US AIR FORCE BOMBS destroyed "a key mass of crude oil and LPG pipes" that were part of a "critical node" of the oil industry in that area.

No effort was made by [Coalition] officials to repair the pipes until three weeks ago, the Hess Oil executive said.

Before the US bombing, the installation was pumping at full capacity -- 670,000 bpd to 690,000 bpd, but after makeshift repairs, its output was "barely a trickle" -- around 300,000 bpd, this oil official said ...