Environment Ministry: Joint Committee to address Minefields Obstructing Oil Pipelines

Baghdad-INA
The Ministry of Environment announced on Saturday, the clearing of 4,000 cubic meters of mines across Iraq, while indicating the completion of projects for the benefit of industrial and oil lands at a rate of 100%, confirming the existence of a joint committee to address minefields that obstruct the extension of oil pipelines.
 
The Director of the Media Department of the Environment Affairs and Mines Department at the Ministry of Environment, Mustafa Hamid Majeed, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The department was established in 2003 and at that time it identified more than 6,000 square kilometers of polluted land across Iraq, and today what remains of it is now about 2,000 to 2,060 square kilometers,” noting that “work is currently underway on about 400 to 450 square kilometers.”
 
He added that "many projects have been completed for the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Oil and other relevant official bodies, and a 100% completion rate has been achieved," noting that "the petrochemical project in Basra Governorate - Al-Zubair District has been completed, without costing the Iraqi treasury any money."
 
Majeed explained that "the department supervised the field surveys conducted by the Civil Defense teams in the Khana Oil Cleaning Project in Diyala Governorate, and more than 8 billion dinars were saved for the state due to the pure national efforts."
 
Regarding minefields and their conflict with the extension of energy and oil pipelines, Majeed said, “There is a committee called the Ministerial Order 223 Committee, which includes the Ministry of Defense, the Mine Affairs Department, as well as oil companies and representatives of the Ministry of Oil it meets periodically and discusses the conflicts between minefields and oil pipelines and finds appropriate solutions and treatments for them.”
 
He pointed out that "the Mine Action Department assigns commercial entities, as well as organizations and the national effort represented by the Defense, Interior, and Popular Mobilization Forces, to remove the dangers of war ammunition that conflict with oil field pipelines, in accordance with work orders issued by the Mine Action Department, taking into account the priorities of the national, economic, humanitarian, and other departments."