Saudi Arabia Seizes Iraqi Pipeline

15 June 2001

In a further sign of deteriorating relations with neighboring Iraq, Saudi Arabia has confiscated an Iraqi-built crude oil pipeline that runs across the Kingdom to the Red Sea port of Muajjiz. The $2 billion IPSA line has been closed for nearly 11 years. The move came two weeks after Saudi Arabia complained to the UN that Iraqi troops had been attacking Saudi border guards since March.

Officials in Riyadh admit that the seizure was politically motivated, in retaliation for Iraq’s military moves. A Saudi letter to the UN vaguely explained that Riyadh seized ownership because Iraq had caused “serious damage to the Saudi people in terms of lives and property, as well as to natural resources and the environment.”

Saudi…

…

IPSA . Iraq-Saudi . oil exports . pipeline . Red Sea . sanctions . Security council . UN 2001

Who Runs Somo

7 September 2001

A fresh shakeup in the Iraqi oil industry has left Oil Ministry employees — not to mention industry observers and traders — puzzled as to who is in charge of Somo, Iraq’s influential state marketing organization.

The latest change came shortly after a reshuffle among top echelons at the ministry and at key state energy companies. Last month, Oil Minister Amer Rashid appointed Somo’s former executive director, Saddam Hasan, director-general of administration and legal affairs at the ministry. Rafid al-Dubuni, previously director general of Northern Oil Co., was appointed executive director of Somo as of Sep. 1.

But before any of the appointees took up their jobs, Saddam Hasan was unexpectedly promoted to the entirely new post of undersecretary for…

…

Ali Rajab . Amer Rashid . appointments . marketing . NOC . oil ministry . oil ministry undersecretary . rafid al-dubuni . Saddam Hasan . Saddam Hussein . Somo . Somo DG 2001

Iraq-US: Carrot & Stick

11 May 2001

In the run-up to the expected showdown at the UN in three weeks, when the current ninth phase of the Iraqi oil-for-food program ends, US State Department officials have embarked on intensive consultations with their four fellow permanent Security Council members on the ideas for “smart sanctions” the Americans intend to propose in the UN resolution covering the program’s 10th phase. The proposals, expounded to the French, British, and Russians by US assistant secretary of State David Welch in late April, would result in far fewer humanitarian contracts being put on hold, lessening the criticism directed at the Americans and British for their tough stance. But far more appealing to Russia, China, and France, it could allow large-scale…

…

david welch . dual use contracts . embargo . humanitarian contracts . Jordan . no-fly zones . office of the iraq program . oil exploration and production . oil smuggling . oil-for-food program . phase nine . Saddam Hussein . sanctions committee . Security council . smart sanctions . Tareq Aziz . UNMOVIC 2001

Iraq-Mideast Conundrum

22 June 2001

Pressure is mounting as UN Security Council members race to revamp the 11-year-old sanctions regime against Baghdad before their self-imposed Jul. 3 deadline. Pushed by its main regional ally, Saudi Arabia, the US is finding it increasingly difficult to win success on the Iraqi front without becoming actively involved in the Middle East conflict. At the same time, however, Riyadh is helping the US pile the pressure on Baghdad.

As part of a two-pronged move, Saudi Arabia wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Jun. 4 saying that it had expropriated Iraq’s IPSA pipeline across Saudi Arabia, 11 years after closing it. The Iraqis built the $2.7 billion line — at the time their biggest investment outside Iraq —…

…

France . Hisham Nazer . IPSA pipeline . Jordan . Kofi Anan . Lebanon . oil exports . Powell . Red Sea . Russia . Saddam Hussein . sanctions . Saudi Arabia . Saudi Aramco . smuggling . SOC . Syria . Tapline . UN resolutions . UN sanctions 2001