KRG says oil pipeline sabotage leads to stoppage, costs $250 mln

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has said repeated attempted thefts and sabotage attacks on the pipelines which carry crude oil from the KRG to the Turkish port of Ceyhan since July 27 have led to an almost complete stoppage in the flow of crude oil, condemning such acts in a written statement on Aug. 2.

"The oil exports via the pipelines are the KRG's principal source of revenue and enable the KRG to pay people's salaries and help the government and people of the Kurdistan region to resist the grave challenges the region is currently facing. The continuous attacks and theft serve only to damage the economic viability and the security of the KRG as it faces the unprecedented threats from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] terrorists, the budget cuts imposed on the KRG by the federal government in Baghdad, and the influx of over 1,800,000 refugees and internally displaced persons [IDPs]," said the statement. 

These recent acts of sabotage within Turkey have cost the KRG over $250 million, a sum almost equivalent to the entire monthly budget for the salaries of the security forces of KRG, the Asayish, Interior Ministry forces and the Peshmerga on the frontlines, who are defending the people of the KRG and Iraq against the forces of terror, added the statement. 

Turkey stands to suffer relatively minor economic damage through the loss of transit fees from the pipeline to Ceyhan, claimed the statement. 

"Therefore, some 99 percent of the burden of these attacks is borne alone by the KRG and its people," it said. 

"The KRG Ministry of Natural Resources condemned these senseless and irresponsible attacks on the KRG people's security and welfare and calls upon those involved to cease their actions...