Assault on Basra helped curb oil smuggling, says minister

Baghdad: The recent fight in Basra between Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen was about more than a government bid to reassert itself in a city where Moqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army was digging in. It was also about oil - and smuggling.

Before the assault began on March 23, the Iraqi government drew up a list of about 200 suspected oil smugglers it hoped to round up - including the brother of the governor of Basra Province and, according to Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain Al Shahristani, several leaders linked to Sadr's militia.

For the government, which relies on oil revenues to fund most of its budget, the financial stakes are immense. While there are no accurate figures, an Iraqi parliamentary committee says that losses from oil smuggling run $5 billion [about Dh18.3 billion] a year.

"We have cleansed large swaths on both sides of Shatt Al Arab that were being used to smuggle oil products and other materials," says Shahristani, who spoke during an interview at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad on Monday, describing the government achievements in Basra so far.

"Many of the gangs are colluding with local officials, powerful parties, or militias; it's a web of interrelations," he says.

Shatt Al Arab, a haven for smugglers, is the 120-mile waterway formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers at Qurnah in Basra Province and runs to the Persian Gulf.

Shahristani says the Basra assault, which was led by Iraqi forces and backed up by the US and British militaries, will allow better control of vital oil resources and facilities, curb smuggling, and help boost production to 3 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, which would be the highest level in 20 years.