The continued success of coalition maritime security operations around the MABOT and KAOOT oil terminals south of the Sha’at al Arab waterway is something of the dog that doesn’t bark:
About 800 US and coalition sailors and eight warships patrol the narrow waterway between Iraq, Kuwait, and Iran to ensure that sectarian violence or terrorists don’t endanger the two Iraqi offshore oil terminals.
With bloodshed and mayhem occurring daily throughout much of Iraq, little attention is paid to this corner of the war, where US and coalition forces have achieved a semblance of normalcy.
Since 2004, the force has overseen the repair and refurbishment of both Iraqi oil platforms. Earlier this year, both stations became operational for the first time since the 2003 US invasion, and now about 1.8 million barrels of oil are flowing through the two stations each day.
The uninterrupted flow is estimated to produce more than $5 billion in oil revenue for Iraq each year, money that in theory the country will use for federal spending and reconstruction efforts, instead of US taxpayer dollars.
Much more work remains to upgrade Iraq’s pipelines and oil facilities to increase the country’s export capacity to the government’s target of 3 billion barrels a day. While that is underway, it is up to Task Force 158, as the coalition force is known, to ensure nothing undermines the progress made so far.
It’s no exageration to say that the oil terminals represent the economic lifeline for Iraq, as well as what must be an almost irresistable target for those who’d rather see the Iraqi people starve than free. A terrorist attempt at attacking the oil platforms was rebuffed in 2004 by a US patrol craft, the USS Firebolt, albeit at the cost of the lives of two Navy sailors and a Coast Guardsman.
Since then, nothing: A testimony to the steely resolve and vigilance of the coaltion and Iraqi sailors and security forces who have kept an unblinking watch against the enemy – an enemy who may be willing to die to succeed at his mission, but who is unwilling to die for assured failure.
That last it what they need to realize it means to attack the US military might — and it’s happening, it seems.
Assured failure. The beginnings of rational behavior.
Faster, please.
I’ve been to KAAOT, that place is a real life Waterworld. It’s (was?) heavily damaged and about 1/2 off it was off limits but we went exploring anyways. Not a bad place in the spring, but I bet that steel is unbearably hot in the summer.
FWIW, they’re each about 1km long. They’re huge structures, designed to service up to 4 supertankers at a time.
The biggest problem for the defenders is the terminals are basically in a straight line from the SAA waterway. That means the fleets of fishing dhows come straight at them (mostly the KAAOT) – because they’re good navaids, in good fishing grounds and they can’t turn left when they leave the SAA because that would put them into Iranian waters – which are only about 2km from the KAAOT.
Luckily the ABOT, which is the more productive platform, is much further away from Iran.
I don’t envy the TF158 guys. It’s a crappy job. Limited maneuvering, lots of surface contacts who pretend you don’t exist, and hell to pay if you let a bad guy get through or accidentally kill an innocent guy.
A terrorist attempt at attacking the oil platforms was rebuffed in 2004 by a US patrol craft, the USS Firebolt, albeit at the cost of the lives of two Navy sailors and a Coast Guardsman.
Does anyone have a link on that? I never heard it before.
Bab’s here’s the tale. It was one of Firebolt’s RHIBs rather than the PC herself. Same result, as far as the sailors were concerned.
If anyone is interested, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch wrote a book, “Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism.” It gives a nice account of the SEALs, GROM [Polish Special Ops] and Marine’s skill and courage in taking those facilitites as well as the stations shorebound.