Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Sindbad lives again, smuggling Iraqi oil
Reuters (Khaled Yacoub Oweis) Basra, March 5
Sindbad, the sailor, is back. This time his name is Khalid and he is smuggling oil.
Instead of dodging killer birds, serpents and sea monsters like the mythical merchant who set sail from Basra, Khalid manoeuvres his vessel past US navy ships patrolling the Gulf with a cargo of fuel oil that fetches up to a half a million dollars in profit.
"We follow oil tankers then make a run for it when the Americans get busy with them. They fire in our direction sometimes, but we don't panic," Khalid told Reuters as he watched welders put final touches to the hull of his new ship, al-Tareq.
Similar to the rest of a smuggling fleet estimated at hundreds of ships, Khalid's vessel is completely hand built using scrap steel, the drive shafts of junk cars and the overhauled engines of decommissioned French or East German trains.
Soaring oil prices, driven by the likelihood of a second Gulf War, have made smuggling oil in contravention of 12-year-old UN sanctions imposed on Iraq after invading Kuwait more profitable than ever.
They are driving a boom in a ship building and breathing activity into Basra, the historic port ravaged by years of war and neglect by the central government.
CHEAP LABOUR
"The government has been an encouraging factor. It is giving us the oil and making scrap steel available to use. We are proud of breaking the embargo," Khalid said.
Iraq is allowed officially to sell oil through the United Nations under a 1996 agreement which stipulates that the proceeds are spent on food, civilian goods and war reparations.
But the oil-for-food deal has been hard to enforce. Diesel was sold for years to Turkey through Iraqi Kurdistan and a pipeline carrying crude oil to Syria resumed operations several years ago.
Basra, which lies on the Shatt al-Arab, Iraq's main outlet to the sea, is taking a significant slice of the illicit oil trade. Empty plots in the city and further to the south on the Shatt al-Arab are being turned into makeshift oil shipyards.
Cheap labour helps. Welders, most of whom come from Iran across the Shatt al-Arab, earn $7 a day. Unskilled workers get 75 cents daily and the guard at the Basra shipyard where al-Tareq is being readied gets $15 a month. Sheets of metals are welded to the frame, and the whole ship rests on the rims of tyres. The differential of a car serves as the steering mechanism and truck parts form the propellers' final drive.
Design also appears to be commissioned on the cheap. "The guy who drew this can barely read or write, but the ship can sure manoeuvre," Khalid said. Smugglers load the oil along distribution points in Khor Amaya bay, which separates Iraq from the Kuwaiti island of Bubiyan. The ships then sail past the Iraqi al-Faw peninsula before delivering the cargo to middlemen waiting at sea or at small ports in the Gulf.
DISPOSABLE SHIPS
In another shipyard further south on Faw, a welder was cutting a semi-circle through rusty sheet metal.
"This is the rudder. Don't worry, it is stronger than it looks," said Shihab, the future captain of the ship under construction.
He insisted the vessel was a fishing boat but a look inside the hull revealed only tanks, no refrigerators or fishing gear.
The ships can be up to 60 metres long and eight storeys high. Because they are made from cheap recycled material their loss can be absorbed if they are confiscated.
The US navy, which has been massing in the Gulf ahead of a possible invasion of Iraq, is anchored at the edge of Iraqi territorial waters off Faw. The Iraqi coastline on the Gulf is only 15 kilometres long.
Iranian boats have also been stepping up their patrols in search for illegal Iraqi oil, though many of the middlemen who buy it are Iranians, smugglers say.
The chance of getting caught stands at 70 per cent per voyage compared to 10 per cent before the United States and Britain stepped up their military build-up in the Gulf few months ago, according to Khalid.
"The Iranians are particularly merciless," Khalid said. "One successful voyage is enough to make me a fortune, but the temptation is always to go back for more. It is always handy to own more than one ship."
Mobile cranes were being readied to lift al-Tareq and lower it into a canal of water that leads to the Shatt al-Arab a short distance away.
RISK OF RECOVERY
The atmosphere in Basra reeks of deprivation. Ship building is one of few signs of economic activity in the city. Basra is surrounded by oil wells but most of its two million Muslim Shi'ite population live in abject poverty. Buildings in the city are still scarred by machine guns and grenades used during a 1991 uprising that was crushed by the Sunni-dominated government Basra was once renowned for importing spices from India and exporting leather and dates, but the port has been closed since the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.
Sailors say sediment has built up where the Shatt al-Arab meets the Gulf, restricting movement of big ships to the port further up the waterway. Iraqi shipping traffic has been diverted to the nearby Um Qasr port on Khor al-Zubayr bay.
"In the 1970s Basra was what Dubai is today - cosmopolitan and a trading hub for the Gulf," says one resident. "I learnt English by picking it up on the street."
An end to the UN sanctions could improve the economy of Basra and return the Shatt al-Arab as the main navigational channel, but it would destroy the oil smuggling trade.
"This risk is at the back of our minds," said Khalid. "We can always go back to smuggling cattle. Iraqi goats are still in demand all over the Gulf."
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission To send your feedback, via web click here or email feedback at hindustantimes.com