PowerSwitch

Anyone ever worked in O&G in Iraq? What was it like? Any 'contact' with insurgents? I suppose the heat is irrelevant.

Opportunities have come up at work to go out to the supergiant fields near Basra and sort out the export pumps. All the project logistics will be handled by the same private company BP use including off-site visits to plant. The compound is a new build which we are told is top notch and has security provided by a mix of western outfits and Iraqi army, can the Iraqis be trusted?

My uninformed opinion is that it would most likely be fine, and very interesting. However, there's a small risk, I'd guess a few percent chance of you experiencing a dodgy/dangerous situation if you're there for a few months.

Then there's also the risk, not related to Iraq, but related to traveling to any far-flung, less-developed part of the world. What are the chances of you suffering a medical emergency? What are the chances of getting stranded by some major event (natural disaster like a volcano, political disaster like a government collapse - there or here(!) etc.)

There'll be a doc on site, but if you come down with something like Appendicitis....

I asked in the brief what the contingency plan was for regime change, and they basically said we run for the Kuwaiti border! They refused to answer on behalf of the company what they thought the chance of that was, but the American bloke alluded to the fact that it would be unlikely TPTB would let go lightly what they have fought for tooth and nail.

Oddly, i'd also feel a bit like i'd whored myself to the petrochemical giants if i went, given that i'm enabling the plundering of Iraq by the west. It would be dirty money, but lots of it.

I would go for it.
As it is well paid, think what plans you can make for an uncertain future, given a good income even if only for a short time.

I would not worry about the moral aspect too much, the oil and gas are going to be extracted whether or not you help in this.

As for security, if your employers are taking precautions the risks are probably minimal.

I would recomend the study of a good training manual such as "LAST LIGHT" In which one of the first signs of TEOTWAWKI was the blowing up of a pumping station.

Seriously though, try to keep a good stash of paper money and gold, just in case TSHTF.
Even if it is not permitted or appropiate to go armed, it would be advisable to become profecient in use of whatever firearms are popular locally.

adam2 wrote:I would not worry about the moral aspect too much,

I think we should worry about the moral aspect of everything we do.

Haven't really been following whats been happening in Iraq, but there still may be jihadis out there beheading people, jihadi beheading videos are grim not a great way to die.
And a thing to consider.

Avoid being taken alive by jihadis, be armed.

If taken alive and about to be killed this may be a forlorn hope but consider conversion to islam, learn the phrase there is no god but allah and mohanmmed is his messenger lā ʾilāha ʾillā l-Lāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu l-Lāh three honest recitations of the shahadah in Arabic is what you do to convert, seem serious .

They may well still behead you but its worth a go.

There is an increasing amount of violence in Iraq once more, but most of it is Sunni on Shia (or vice versa ) terrorism, mostly in the cities and targeting locals.

There is quite a lot of pipeline sabotage in northern Iraq, but this a turf war over who controls the oil, not targeting oil production directly, neither side wants to kill the goose.

I have not heard of much in the way of attacks in the south recently, Al Qaeda does not currently have much local support. Like all such countries, there will be no-go areas and local bandits and opportunists, but they will steer clear of well defended Western enclosures.

Iraq looks relatively stable compared with many countries in the area, but I suspect this is because they have a Western backed puppet regime and the largest US 'embassy' in the world, and they are essentially a US corporate controlled colony, under occupation by a large mercenary army.

Edit

Stay a long way away from the border with Syria.

adam2 wrote:Seriously though, try to keep a good stash of paper money and gold, just in case TSHTF.
Even if it is not permitted or appropiate to go armed, it would be advisable to become profecient in use of whatever firearms are popular locally.

Dollars? I'd be inclined to think $ was as good as anything.

I'm proficient with an over/under type shotgun but that's all, never fired a pump action, and i've no idea how i might become proficient with automatic rifles and handguns in this country by Dec 1st. I'm utterly lethal with a .22 air rifle, but what good that would do me i don't know!

biffvernon wrote:

adam2 wrote:I would not worry about the moral aspect too much,

I think we should worry about the moral aspect of everything we do.

Thinking it being one thing. Accomplishing it being something else entirely.

Ralph wrote:

biffvernon wrote:

adam2 wrote:I would not worry about the moral aspect too much,

I think we should worry about the moral aspect of everything we do.

Thinking it being one thing. Accomplishing it being something else entirely.

So best to take the easy way out, stuff any moral concern and carry on with the capitalist consumer unthinking approach?

woodburner wrote:

Ralph wrote:

biffvernon wrote: I think we should worry about the moral aspect of everything we do.

Thinking it being one thing. Accomplishing it being something else entirely.

So best to take the easy way out, stuff any moral concern and carry on with the capitalist consumer unthinking approach?

No. But honesty in distinguishing between hopes and dreams and thinking about stuff and DOING something strikes me as being noteworthy.

People talk about worrying about the moral aspect of everything, you equate that with consumerism as though it is amoral. Morality strikes me as culture dependent, so if a culture says that consumerism is okay, those outside the culture don't get to judge it from their personal morality. Having said that, I would certainly agree with you that raging consumerism is bad. I just don't know that "morals" has anything to do with it being bad.

I like to act on my thoughts. Today I've organised a demonstration against a proposed oil well. If I can be instrumental in keeping 25 million barrels of oil underground I'll have done more for global warming mitigation than changing a light bulb. http://transitiontownlouth.org.uk/frack.html

biffvernon wrote:I like to act on my thoughts. Today I've organised a demonstration against a proposed oil well. If I can be instrumental in keeping 25 million barrels of oil underground I'll have done more for global warming mitigation than changing a light bulb.

Walking 3 miles to the pub?

The idea sounds extremely American. Walk 3 miles with me for beer and victory!!

Hell, you BUY the beer and I'll bet that you can get every drunk in the Isles to walk the three miles AND change the lightbulb.

The two together would be EARTH SHATTERING!!!

If walking 3 miles for beer is oil instrumental, what would be the equivalent to saving the world from climate change? A couple of pushups and then eating a box of twinkies?

The gulf between British and American culture is further revealed.

Here we are, walking to the pub, via a potential oil well site:

I bet Iraqi oil fields are not set in such pretty countryside and I don't think their pubs are as good either.