The Environmental Cost of Oil Extraction in Southern Iraq
The death of Ali Hussein Julood, a 21-year-old from the Iraqi town of Rumaila, has once again brought to light the environmental degradation caused by international oil companies like British Petroleum (BP) in Iraq. Ali was diagnosed with leukaemia and was told by doctors that pollution from gas flared in the nearby field, operated by BP, had likely caused his cancer. Gas flaring is a low-cost procedure used by oil companies to burn off the natural gas expelled during drilling. It is a waste of valuable natural resources and contributes to global warming, as well as causing dangerous air pollution that has been linked to severe health problems in nearby populations. Some of the pollutants released during this process, such as benzene, are known to cause cancers and respiratory diseases.
Ali’s death is not an isolated incident. In towns and villages near the country’s vast oil fields, thousands of other men, women, and children are still living under smoke-filled skies and suffering avoidable health problems because company executives insist on putting profit before lives. While there is not much publicly available data on the rates of pollution-related illnesses in areas near oil fields in southern Iraq, a confidential report from the Iraqi health ministry recently obtained by the BBC blamed pollution from gas flaring, among other factors, for a 20 percent rise in cancer in Basra, southern Iraq between 2015 and 2018. A second leaked document, again seen by the BBC, from the local government in Basra showed that cancer cases in the region are three times higher than figures published in the official nationwide cancer registry.
The development of the oil industry in southern Iraq introduced environmental hazards associated with the extraction of oil. In 1952, gas was being flared in Zubair in such large quantities that the night sky over the oil fields was visibly polluted. In 1955, the Iraqi government started to voice its desire to use the gas being flared in Rumaila and Zubair for electricity generation. In 1960, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim formally asked the company to let Iraq exploit the gas that it was not using. The same demand came up again and again in the run-up to the nationalisation of the Iraqi oil industry in 1972, but IPC and its subsidiaries repeatedly turned the Iraqi government down. They were reluctant to allow Iraq use the excess natural gas expelled during oil extraction because flaring allows operators to de-pressurise their equipment and manage unpredictable and large pressure variations without increasing their production costs. Capturing the gas rather than flaring requires them to put in extra safety mechanisms, which would reduce the amount of oil they extract, and with it, their profits.
Iraq nationalised its oil industry in 1972, and by 1990 had built the capacity to capture 95 percent of the natural gas expelled during drilling. However, some of this infrastructure was destroyed as a result of sanctions and subsequent wars, limiting Iraq’s ability to store and use the gas, end extensive flaring and reduce pollution. Following the 2003 invasion, the Iraqi oil industry was once again privatised as a result of pressure from the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When the process of auctioning off oil fields in southern Iraq began in 2008, the Iraqi government offered foreign oil companies long contracts of up to 25 years, reminiscent of the early concessions agreements with the IPC. These included stabilisation clauses, which insulated foreign companies from legal changes that might emerge over the course of their contracts. This meant that the companies were, and continue to be, unaffected by any environmental regulations passed by the Iraqi government to reduce pollution or bring Iraqi laws in line with emerging international environmental protection standards.
Looking back at the development of the oil industry in southern Iraq makes apparent that the kind of pollution that killed Ali has been in the making for some 70 years. His death – like the deaths of many others who succumbed to pollution-related cancers in his country – was not an unavoidable tragedy, but the natural consequence of a long history of colonial violence and extractive capitalism.
Predatory colonial practices that began over a century ago caused southern Iraq’s vast oil reserves to be left under the sole control of foreign companies today – companies that over and over again put profit before the lives of the Iraqi inhabitants of the lands they exploit. Ali’s death is yet more proof that colonial violence is far from over and that it has many different faces. Today, the colonisers are killing the peoples of the Global South not only with drones and bombs, but also with century-old extractive practices that gradually turn their homelands toxic.
In conclusion, the environmental cost of oil extraction in southern Iraq has been devastating for the local population. The practice of gas flaring, which is used by oil companies to burn off natural gas expelled during drilling, contributes to global warming and causes dangerous air pollution that has been linked to severe health problems in nearby populations. The death of Ali Hussein Julood is just one example of the many lives lost due to environmental degradation caused by international oil companies like BP in Iraq. It is time for these companies to prioritize the lives of the people living near their operations and take steps to reduce pollution and protect local communities and the environment from the unwanted consequences of oil extraction.