Why aren't the insurgents hitting the oil pipelines?

[SSG Rock]

Thought popped into my head today and I couldn't figure it out. I suppose I could do some research but I'm feeling lazy today. Has anyone else looked into this aspect of the insurgency? Why are they not attacking the oil infastructure?

[Jedburgh]

...it may not be reported that much in the general media, but they've been hitting oil infrastructure for quite a while now...

Attacks on Iraq Oil Industry Aid Vast Smuggling Scheme (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/04/africa/web.0604smuggle.php)

...the sabotage attacks that have crippled Iraq's oil pipelines and refineries for the past three years...
Oil Attacks Costing Iraq $6.25 billion (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4729178.stm)

...A total of 186 attacks were carried out on oil sites last year, claiming the lives of 47 engineers and 91 police and security guards...
Insurgents Wage Precise Attacks on Baghdad Fuel (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/international/middleeast/21sabotage.html?ei=5088&en=e6cd21940411c4f5&ex=1266728400&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1163177946-5r8CBgJy+ERablEmYx0esQ)

...The overall pattern of the sabotage and its technical savvy suggests the guidance of the very officials who tended to the nation's infrastructure during Saddam Hussein's long reign, current Iraqi officials say.

The only reasonable conclusion, said Aiham Alsammarae, the Iraqi electricity minister, is that the sabotage operation is being led by former members of the ministries themselves, possibly aided by sympathetic holdovers...

[Jimbo]

The other issue with the oil infrastructure, is that the insurgents weren't really the ones attacking it (but they got and continue to get credit). A majority of the oil infrastructure attacks are hatched as criminal acts and disenfranchisement as far as sharing of oil profits in with the various communities. The oil profits all go to Baghdad where the government does whatever withit, but one thing they haven't been doing is kicking money back to the sheokhs, which is what Saddam did. Share the wealth the aatcks cut down.

[Jedburgh]

The other issue with the oil infrastructure, is that the insurgents weren't really the ones attacking it (but they got and continue to get credit). A majority of the oil infrastructure attacks are hatched as criminal acts and disenfranchisement as far as sharing of oil profits in with the various communities. The oil profits all go to Baghdad where the government does whatever withit, but one thing they haven't been doing is kicking money back to the sheikhs, which is what Saddam did. Share the wealth the aatcks cut down.
That is certainly a part of it, but I hesitate to state that base-line scenario you describe is what is behind the majority of attacks on oil infrastructure.

Just like the overall situation in Iraq, it's a complex pattern, and all elements are players. Classic insurgent targeting of infrastructure, militias involved in internecine maneuvering over resources, and plain ol' criminals engaged in wanton destruction or hijacking - it's all woven together with plenty of overlaps, and woe to the analyst who attempts to place a cookie-cuttern pattern on the issue.

[Jedburgh]

Control Risk Group, 20 Nov 06:

...Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani on 17 November said that the twin oil pipelines linking the northern city of Kirkuk to the port of Yumurtalik in southern Turkey were no longer useable because of repeated insurgent attacks and poor maintenance.

The pipelines' current status is likely to have widespread political repercussions. Firstly, it limits the already constrained means available to the central government to raise the oil revenues on which it depends for patronage, strengthening the security forces and co-opting its political opponents. Secondly, the resulting need to rely on the country's remaining working pipelines that connect to the southern port of Basra will increase the bargaining power and influence of Shia Arab militias who control areas in the south through which the pipelines pass; this will heighten the significance of Basra and also the current dispute between Shia Arab parties over who controls the south's oil resources. Thirdly, the central government's threat to curtail Kurdish oil exports as part of the continuing dispute over who controls the Kurdistan Region (KR)'s oil resources will be given more weight (though the pipeline's status will also provide the KR government with both an incentive and a convenient excuse to consider building its own pipelines across the KR, thereby enhancing its autonomy from the central government). Sunni Arab insurgents are likely to continue targeting pipelines across the country on a regular basis as a means of pressuring the Shia Arab-dominated central government....

[Jedburgh]

Related website: Iraq Pipeline Watch (http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm)

The above provided the data for this chart in the Brookings Institution 22 Jan 07 update to their Iraq Index (http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf):

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/6249/attacksoilinfrastructur2rj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)