Despite the decline, oil smuggling operations cost the state millions of dollars every month

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[size=52]Despite the decline, oil smuggling operations cost the state millions of dollars every month[/size]

[size=45]Member of the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee for Basra Governorate, Representative Ali Al-Mashkour, confirmed yesterday, Monday, that the issue of oil smuggling is an integrated process that takes place in ignorance of the law and security services.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashkoor said in a press statement, “There is a rule that must be taken into account that wherever oil is found, smuggling exists, given that there are weak souls and specialized gangs,” indicating that “the idea is to limit these operations and legislate laws to limit smuggling, whether it is in the sector.” Private or public.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashkour added, “Smuggling will not be achieved without cooperation between employees and the weak-minded in the private sector,” pointing out that “the rate of smuggling has decreased significantly, through follow-up on all these matters.”[/size]
[size=45]He continued, “There are no fixed statistics for smuggling operations, given that they are disparate operations and sporadic incidents here or there where the law is ignored or the security authorities ignore them, but in absolute terms there is nothing systematic about them,” stressing that “smuggling is an integrated process that takes place.” At home, then it is smuggled abroad, some of it through tanks, which is the most common, especially in the quotas that the state gives to laboratories and factories that are smuggled through the region or other smuggling outlets.”[/size]
[size=45]He explained that “internal smuggling operations are more difficult than those smuggled abroad, given that the first case is that the smuggled quantities are distributed within specific laboratories or factories.”[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee confirmed on Saturday (August 19, 2023) that Iraq is losing millions of dollars due to oil smuggling operations.[/size]
[size=45]Committee member Ali Al-Lami says, “The oil smuggling operations that take place in various Iraqi cities cost Iraq very large losses in the amount of millions of dollars, and these operations are led by gangs in which various influential parties and personalities are involved.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Lami explains that “there is a decline in oil smuggling operations, after the strikes directed at these gangs by the security forces, which succeeded during the past periods in thwarting many oil smuggling operations, as well as exposing many of these gangs,” adding: “But the smuggling operations are still continuing.” This calls for doubling the security effort.”[/size]
[size=45]For its part, the Energy Police Directorate of the Ministry of Interior revealed on (August 18, 2023) statistics for seizures of oil derivatives during the past year.[/size]
[size=45]The Director General of the Energy Police, Major General Dhafer Al-Husseini, said in a press statement, “The Energy Police Directorate continues to carry out its security duties in accordance with the orders issued by the authorities and in joint coordination with the National Intelligence and Investigation Agency, in addition to forming joint teams during the security operations it carries out.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The Directorate has been able, from the beginning of this year until now, to seize 489 tanks and 100 dens for smuggling petroleum derivatives, confiscate 23 million and 308 thousand liters of fuel, arrest 553 defendants, and seize two illegal gas stations.”[/size]
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