Iraq oil pipeline vulnerable, analyst says
Iraq's oil pipelines are easy targets and hard to defend, though relatively easy to fix, according to an energy security analyst at the Eurasia Group."Pipelines are very easy to fix, it only takes a couple days to fix a bomb attack," said Greg Priddy, global energy analyst for the Washington-based business risk consulting firm. "But they are also very easy to hit and very hard to secure." UPI spoke to Priddy about the ongoing attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure. Last week a pipeline connecting the Rumailah oil field, Iraq's largest, to the southern infrastructure was attacked. Most of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves are in the south, and all of its 1.6 million barrels per day of exports flow through the port in Basra.