SeaPower - February 2007

Navy SEALs’ Action May Have
Prevented Iraqi Oil Disaster

By DAVID F. WINKLER

One of the legacies of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 was Iraq’s sabotage of Kuwait’s oil production facilities. The resulting plumes of smoke and slicks of spilled oil were an ecological disaster that would require months of cleanup.

In another war with Iraq, the question was not whether Saddam Hussein would repeat such an environmental crime, but how soon.

In planning for what became known as Operation Iraqi Freedom I — the liberation of Iraq from the rule of Saddam Hussein — securing key Iraqi oil facilities from saboteurs was a high priority. An obvious target was a pair of offshore oil terminals — Mina Al Bakr (MABOT) and Khor Al Amaya (KAAOT).

Planners estimated that the destruction of just one of the platforms would create damage equal to a dozen Exxon Valdez spills. Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil after running aground off the coast of Alaska in 1989.

And as the primary transfer point of oil pumped out from the Al Faw peninsula to awaiting tankers, these two facilities would be critical for the economic vitality of a post-Saddam Iraq.

However, planners quickly realized that merely capturing the oil terminals might not advert disaster. Demolition of onshore pipeline support valves for each platform and their metering and manifold stations located on the Al Faw could also cause the long-term shutdown of the Iraqi oil spigot.

The mission of seizing these objectives at the onset of the war fell to an American-led Naval Special Warfare Task Group that had, at its disposal, elite forces from Britain, Poland and the United States. The prospects of success for this combined operation were enhanced by months of training in Kuwait that included a pair of “mother-of-all dress rehearsals.”

In addition, the coalition, hoping to exploit reports of poor morale among the enemy forces, dropped thousands of leaflets with capitulation instructions as well as phrases dissuading soldiers and workers from destroying oil facilities and equipment: “You’re hurting your family’s livelihood of fishing if you destroy the oil.”

With the commencement of combat operations just before sunset on March 20, 2003, special warfare forces departed for their targets. Having quietly closed on their offshore objectives, U.S. Navy SEALs and Polish

GROM commandos boarded the MABOT and KAAOT platforms, respectively, at approximately 2200 hours. Some dozen Iraqis at MABOT quickly surrendered to the SEALs, who then uncovered a large weapons cache.

Similarly, the Polish forces met little resistance at KAAOT, capturing 18 Iraqis. With the platforms in coalition hands, Royal Marines arrived to relieve the American and Polish assault forces.

In contrast, Navy SEALs assigned to capture the Al Faw installations had to deal with some adversity. While eight MH- 53 Pave Low helicopters carried their highly trained human cargoes to objectives that were code-named “Coronado” and “Texaco,” an assortment of British and U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft attacked known enemy troop concentrations and fortifications across the low-lying peninsula.

When arriving at “Coronado,” SEALs ran off the back ramp of the big helicopters to find themselves knee deep in oily muck. As they struggled to off-load their equipment, they were exposed to an approaching Iraqi vehicle. An Air Force A- 10 quickly eliminated that threat and bought the SEALs valuable time, which they used to seize the pipeline manifold complex. Soon thereafter, Royal Marines arrived to establish a firmer defensive perimeter.

A threat remained as Iraqi troops gathered to the north; however, close air support eliminated the enemy concentration.

SEALs landing at “Texaco” also floundered in knee-deep mud and lost use of their three desert patrol vehicles. Moving out on foot, the SEAL assault team swept the area and then captured its objective, finding no significant weapons or explosives. After securing the south and east gates to the complex, the SEALs called in the Royal Marines, who conducted a thorough search of all structures and took 100 occupants as prisoners of war.