Task Force RIO Plugs Away at Plugging Leaks 5/19/2003
The oil pipeline was blazing when John Forslund and the Army Corps of Engineers arrived on the site 20 km north of Basra in early April. They're still not sure whether the 48-in.-dia line was damaged by combat or by sabotage. There had been combat in the area, as attested by a damaged electric transmission line nearby and quantities of unexploded ordnance in the area. Sabotage seems unlikely, given the difficulty of penetrating steel pipe with small arms, a common sabotage practice.
"This is the only one of this magnitude that I'm aware of south of Baghdad," says Forslund, project manager of Task Force RIO's Southern Project Office. TF RIO (Restore Iraqi Oil) is composed of the Corps of Engineers and Kellogg Brown & Root, Houston, with the mission of putting the oil industry back on its feet.