Tag Archives: oil fields

Scorched earth: If Islamic State can’t have it, no one can

FILE PHOTO: Graffiti sprayed by Islamic State militants which reads "We remain" is seen on a stone at the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra, in Homs Governorate, Syria April 1, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadik/File Photo

By Ali Abdelaty

CAIRO (Reuters) – As Islamic State loses ground in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni militant group which once held territory amounting to a third of those countries is turning to sabotage to ensure its enemies cannot benefit from its losses.

As the Syrian army and allied militias advanced under heavy Russian air cover on the ancient city of Palmyra three weeks ago, Islamic State leaders ordered fighters to destroy oil and gas fields.

“It is the duty of mujahideen today to expand operations targeting economic assets of the infidel regimes in order to deprive crusader and apostate governments of resources,” an article in the group’s online weekly magazine al-Nabaa said.

The strategy poses a double challenge to Baghdad and Damascus, depriving their governments of income and making it harder to provide services and gain popular support in devastated areas recaptured from the militants.

The March 2 article said operations by Islamic State in the area around Palmyra “prove the massive effect that strikes aimed at the infidels’ economy have, confusing them and drawing them … into battles they are not ready for.”

It’s not just oil wells the group has targeted. Twice in the last two years it has taken over Palmyra, about 200 km (130 miles) northeast of Damascus, and both times destroyed priceless antiquities before being driven out.

A Syrian antiquities official said earlier this month that he had seen serious damage to the Tetrapylon, a square stone platform with matching structures of four columns positioned at each corner. Only four of the 16 columns were still standing.

In their earlier occupation of the city, the militants ruined an 1,800-year-old monumental arch and the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin.

However, the article in al-Nabaa suggested Islamic State sees the destruction of tangible economic assets as a greater weapon against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who is from Syria’s Alawite minority.

“In the first days of the second conquest of Palmyra, where fighters secured the city and other vast areas to the west that include the Alawite regime’s last petrol resources … the Alawite regime and its allies rushed to the depth of the desert to reclaim them,” Islamic State wrote.

“But the caliphate’s soldiers had beaten them to the punch and destroyed the wells and refineries completely so that their enemies could not gain from them and so that their economic crisis goes on for the longest time possible.”

‘MASS DESTRUCTION POLICY’

Islamic State, which declared a caliphate across large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, has lost much territory and many fighters as it comes under attack from a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive in Iraq and three separate ground forces in Syria.

Iraqi troops have recaptured most of Mosul, the largest city to be taken by the group and the base from which its leader proclaimed the caliphate. In Syria, the group has lost Palmyra and its main stronghold, Raqqa, is surrounded.

As well as destroying resources before they pull out, the militants have stepped up insurgent attacks in areas beyond their control, especially in Iraq.

“Any harm to the economic interests of these two governments will weaken them, be it an electricity tower in Diyala, an oil well in Kirkuk, a telecommunications network in Baghdad, or a tourist area in Erbil,” the article in al-Nabaa said.

It said those attacks would further stretch the group’s enemies by forcing them to defend economic interests, weakening their readiness for the battles to come.

Islamic State has caused about $30 billion in damage to Iraqi infrastructure since 2014, an adviser to the Iraqi government on infrastructure told Reuters.

“Daesh has used a mass destruction policy on factories and buildings with the aim of causing as much economic harm to Iraq as possible,” said Jaafar al-Ibrahimi, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

“Over 90 percent of infrastructure that has come under their hands was destroyed. Daesh burned all oil wells in the Qayyarah field south of Mosul.”

They also destroyed sugar and cement factories and transported the equipment to Syria, he said.

In Syria, the militants destroyed over 65 percent of the Hayan gas plant, the country’s oil minister told the state news agency. The Hayan field, in Homs province where Palmyra is located, produced 3 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Dominic Evans and Mark Trevelyan)

Canadian oilfield workers readying return after wildfire

Burned out homes from Canadian Wildfire

By Nia Williams and Ernest Scheyder

CALGARY/LAC LA BICHE, Alberta (Reuters) – Workers for one of the largest oil sands companies affected by a wildfire in northern Canada will begin returning to the shuttered facilities on Thursday, a union official said, the latest indication the key petroleum production area was slowly coming back online.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, the premier of the province of Alberta and the head of the Canadian Red Cross announced that residents of Fort McMurray, the oil-boom town that was evacuated last week because of the fire, would be offered direct financial aid.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established an ad hoc cabinet committee to coordinate federal relief efforts. Trudeau will tour the fire zone on Friday.

Ken Smith, president of Unifor Local 707, the union that represents 3,400 Suncor Energy Inc workers, said the company would start to fly employees back to its oil sands base plant from Thursday.

“It will take a few days to get the plant up and in condition to start handling feed,” Smith said.

Facilities north of Fort McMurray that had been shuttered largely because of heavy smoke rather than fire were likely to come back on line first, in a matter of days in many cases.

Roughly 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of output were shut down during the fire, about half of the oil sands’ usual daily production.

Late Wednesday, Enbridge Inc said it had restarted its 550,000 bpd Line 18 pipeline, which carries crude from the company’s Cheecham terminal 380 kilometers (236 miles) south to the regional crude trading hub of Edmonton.

Enbridge also said crews were on site at its facilities in the Fort McMurray region and confirmed its terminals were not damaged by the wildfire.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc was the first company to resume operations in the area, restarting its Albian Sands mines at a reduced rate. The facility can produce up to 255,000 bpd.

Syncrude, controlled by Suncor, restarted power generation at its oil sands mine in Aurora, north of the city, on Tuesday as it began planning to resume operations. The site has a total capacity of around 315,000 bpd.

Dozens of repair trucks and other vehicles headed for the oil fields on Wednesday, driving north along the main highway into the area, a Reuters eyewitness said. Some were towing heavy equipment.

Still, some projects to the south and east of Fort McMurray remained unreachable as the fire threat persisted.

The town remained shut to residents.

“The area is still very … dangerous with some hot spots still throughout the city and areas of concern,” said Kevin Kunetzki of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Around 300 RCMP members are patrolling the town and have found 100 homes showing signs of break-ins. This could be a result of concerned residents trying to check on neighbors, rather than burglars, he told a news conference in Edmonton.

The size of the fire was little changed on Wednesday at roughly 229,000 hectares (566,000 acres) and moving away from the community.

There are 700 firefighters, 32 helicopters, 13 air tankers and 83 pieces of heavy equipment units working on the Fort McMurray fire, the government said.

Alberta is making cash available immediately to the 90,000 evacuees from the fire zone. The funds, C$1,250 per adult and C$500 per child, would be distributed by debit cards beginning immediately to evacuees in Edmonton, Calgary and Lac La Biche.

Canadian Red Cross Chief Executive Conrad Sauve said his agency was making C$50 million in funds available to the relief effort now, out of C$67 million that had been raised so far. The money will be distributed as electronic funds transfers of C$600 for each adult and C$300 for each child, he said.

“This is the most important cash transfer we have done in our history and the fastest one,” he told a news conference with Alberta premier Rachel Notley.

The local government council held its first meeting since the evacuations in Edmonton on Thursday. The mood was somber and defiant.

Authorities in Lac la Biche, a small town south of Fort McMurray where many evacuees are staying, opened its fishing season four days early to provide temporary residents “with a well-deserved family recreational opportunity,” a statement said.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Liz Hampton in Calgary and Allison Martell in Toronto; Writing by Dan Burns in Toronto; Editing by Alan Crosby)

Helicopters, trucks set to remove thousands fleeing Canadian wildfire

Flames rise in Industrial area south Fort McMurray Alberta Canada

By Rod Nickel and Liz Hampton

CONKLIN/LAC LA BICHE (Reuters) – Canada’s government sent trucks and helicopters on Friday to safely remove thousands of evacuees stranded north of a wildfire that ravaged nearly a quarter million acres around the Canadian oil town of Fort McMurray, Alberta.

The out-of-control wildfire has consumed entire neighborhoods in Fort McMurray, forcing 88,000 to evacuate, and threatened two oil sands sites south of the city. While the main fire have turned southeast, away from town, parts of Fort McMurray were still burning.

“Things have calmed down in the city a little bit, but guys are out as we speak, fighting fires, trying to protect your property,” said local fire chief Darby Allen in a video message to residents posted late in the evening.

“The beast is still up, it’s surrounding the city, and we’re here doing our very best for you.”

Some 25,000 evacuees were forced to flee north on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the blaze closed off their only route south. After days on roadsides and at oil sands camps, they clamored for answers on Thursday.

Thousands of evacuees will catch a glimpse of the scorched town as police escort them south towards Alberta’s major cities.

About 8,000 people will be airlifted out, officials said, but most are expected to drive south, with police escorts, once officials determine the highway is safe, likely on Friday.

“The damage to the community of Fort McMurray is extensive and the city is not safe for residents,” said Alberta Premier Rachel Notley in a press briefing late Thursday.

Notley said it would not be responsible to speculate on when residents would be allowed to return: “We do know that it will not be a matter of days,” she said.

South of Fort McMurray, CNOOC Nexen’s Long Lake oil sands facility and Athabasca Oil’s Hangingstone project were in danger, according to emergency officials. Both facilities have been evacuated.

Although the cause of the fire was not known, tinder-dry brush, low humidity, and hot, gusting winds have made it nearly impossible to control.

The blaze, which erupted last Sunday, grew more than tenfold from 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares) on Wednesday to some 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) on Thursday, an area nearly 10 times the size of Manhattan.

(Additional reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)