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Iran Forces Occupy Iraqi Oil Well, Border Guard Says

MsSage

Well-known member
WHY is this NOT news????
Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian forces yesterday entered Iraqi territory at dawn and occupied a well in the East Maysan oil field, Border Guard General Zafer Nazmi said.

The Iranian forces positioned tanks around well number 4, which is in the al-Fakah region, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Baghdad. The two neighbors have disputed the border of southeast Iraq for decades.

“They positioned tanks around it and dug trenches,” Nazmi said by phone from Basra. “They are still there, they raised the flag.”

East Maysan in southern Iraq is an old oil field that is no longer in production, according to Nazmi. Iraq is the third- largest oil producer in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iranian politics have influenced crude markets at other times this year as the country’s insistence on developing atomic power stokes concern in the U.S. and other nations that it may be trying to make nuclear weapons.

Crude oil for January delivery rose as much as $2.04, or 2.8 percent, to $74.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $73.41 a barrel at 5:05 p.m. London time.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said U.S. forces are aware of the incident, which he said happened near an oil field between Iranian and Iraqi border forts. Wood referred other questions to Iraqi authorities.

Disputed Oil Fields

Clashes between the two countries over disputed oil fields near the border have occurred previously and “the lack of a formally demarcated border between the two countries has been the cause,” Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence- consulting group, said in an e-mailed statement.

Energy analysts and traders were surprised at the incursion, which comes days before Iran and Iraq meet fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at a Dec. 22 meeting in Luanda, Angola.

When told of the incident today at the climate summit in Copenhagen, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla el-Badri said: “I hope that is not true, we don’t need any more conflict in that part of the world. I will look into this matter.”

Iraq this year signed contracts with several foreign companies to develop its oil fields to revive production.

Ties between Iran and Iraq have improved since the establishment of a Shiite Muslim-led government in Baghdad after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The two countries waged an eight-year war that ended in 1988, with much of the fighting along the border between southern Iraq and Iran.

‘Surprising Development’

“From a geopolitical perspective it is a surprising development in terms of timing, considering the upcoming OPEC meeting,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil analyst with BNP Paribas SA in London.

“If verified, the incursion only goes to highlight the still very uncertain conditions on the ground in Iraq that have been impeding the recovery of the country’s oil sector,” Tchilinguirian said.

Iraq’s National Security Council will hold a meeting to discuss the situation, state-run television al-Iraqiya said. The government in Baghdad will issue a statement later today and has taken no military action because it will seek a diplomatic solution, it said.

Iraq’s al-Hurra television station also reported that Iranian forces crossed the border into Iraq, citing the U.S. army saying the incident wasn’t violent.

No Bids

Baghdad-based government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh didn’t immediately respond to e-mails and mobile telephone calls seeking comment. Calls to Iran’s presidential office, Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense weren’t answered. Friday is the weekend in Iran. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in London declined to comment.

The Maysan oil fields, also known as Missan, were among the development contracts offered to foreign oil companies in June, though no bids were received. Of the three fields in that region, Buzurgan, Abu Ghirab and Fauqi, production began in 1976 at the first two and was suspended in 1980 because of the Iran- Iraq war and didn’t restart until 1998, according to Iraq.

To contact the reporters on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai at [email protected]; Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad through the Dubai newsroom or [email protected]

Last Updated: December 18, 2009 12:33 EST
 
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