Home » Archives » "Convoys move Iraqi oil over border"

Convoys move Iraqi oil over border

Mar-11-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

[Link to Full Article] (Photo included)
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, March 11, 2004

MOSUL, Iraq — The coalition is relying on massive truck convoys in northern Iraq to move crude and refined oil back and forth across the Turkish border.

The coalition’s goal is to pump 2.8 million and 3 million barrels of crude a day from northern Iraqi oil fields, said Maj. Chuck Svelan of the Mosul-based Task Force Olympia, which is overseeing the oil transport. [...]

The convoys rendezvous just north of Mosul at the Foxtrot depot, which is manned by soldiers from the Fort Lewis, Wash.-based 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment.

Earlier this week, 1st Lt. Michael Bayler of the 1-37th stood in a cloud of dust, hopping from side to side to avoid being crushed under an 18-wheeler. [...]

Some soldiers from Bayler’s unit monitored the Iraqi dispatchers, while others stood guard on a nearby rooftop scanning the fields for anti-coalition forces. So far, the insurgents have avoided the depot. [...]

Maj. Karl Petkovich, also with Task Force Olympia, works with Restore Iraqi Oil, an organization formed with the long-term goal of increasing Iraqi crude oil production to between 2.8 million and 3 million barrels a day. Exact data on the agency’s progress is classified, but production is well ahead of January’s target of 2 million barrels a day, Petkovich said.


Advertisements