11th Anniversary of "Gulf War" Al-Rawdatayn Blasts
Joe Vialls, 2 February 2001
The blast destroyed Oil Gathering Center 3, Gas Booster 130, and the Al-Rawdatayn oilfield electrical sub-station. Four oil workers were killed outright, and another seventeen are being in treated in hospital for burns, some of them severe. Do not be fooled by the non-sequential numbers. All three units destroyed lie at the very heart of one of Kuwait's premier oilfields, and in turn control a significant portion of oil output from other fields.
At a single stroke Al-Rawdaytan's production capability of of 280,000 bpd (Barrel Per Day) was destroyed, with peripheral network damage reducing Kuwait's total oil exporting capability from 1.7 million bpd to 0.95 million bpd. Though export capability can be corrected in the short term by increasing flow from several other Kuwaiti fields, the long term look bleak.
If over-production of the other fields is sustained for too long, there is a high risk of "coning", where subsurface oil and water layers go into turbulent flow and then interface, damaging the fields even more than they were by the Gulf War.
Though the mainstream media is claiming the massive blast was an unfortunate "accident", it was no such thing. Immediately after the attack, security was drastically increased round the oilfields, and also around the the nearby air base used by British and American aircraft to enforce the illegal "No Fly Zones" over Iraq, thereby effectively "blinding" Iraqi air defenses in the run up to Operation Shekhinah, already significantly delayed by the World Trade Center attack on 11 September 2001.
Currently the identity of the attackers is unknown, but best guess is an Israeli commando raid, designed to back Dubya away from direct intervention against Iraq. You know the sort of thing:- "If you even threaten to start messing around in what will shortly become Israeli property, your oil supplies from the Middle East will be severely curtailed". An attack by Iraq can be confidently ruled out. Though Baghdad has the commando capability to do the job, it would be completely out of character. There have been no known attacks by Iraqi forces since the end of the Gulf War.
Catch 22, isn't it? Any American reading this who currently drives an automobile, might like to stroll down to the nearest supermarket and invest in a bicycle. Just in case. You might be needing one...
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