Oil spills after individuals punctured the Iraqi oil pipeline passing through Akkar in northern Lebanon. (Photo sent by L'Orient Today correspondent Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — Unknown individuals have punctured a section of the Iraqi oil pipeline, which has been out of service for several years and which connects Iraq to Lebanon through Syria, in the town of Qaabrine, in Akkar, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent on Sunday.
Residents urged the authorities to arrest the alleged perpetrators and plug the leak.
Individuals regularly sabotage pipes and use special pumps to suck a large amount of oil, which they can then use to smuggle into the local market.
This could pose a danger if the fuel then spreads to neighboring areas. Residents urged the management of the oil facilities in Tripoli, a managing body of the northern area, to find a solution to this recurring problem and to plug the pipeline in order to stop the oil spill. They also called on the Ministry of Energy to deal with the problem quickly and asked the authorities to punish those responsible.
The Ministry of Energy has not yet issued a statement in response to the intentional oil spill.
A month ago, the Civil Defense had extinguished a fire that broke out in a disused pipeline in the Abdeh region of Northern Lebanon. The pipeline, built nearly 90 years ago to transport oil from Iraq through Syria to Tripoli, was closed at the start of the civil war in 1975.
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak