US embassy cable - 05ADANA205

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 000205 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ELTN, MOPS, MARR, IZ, SY, TU, ADANA 
SUBJECT: HABUR GATE CLOGGED BY CONSTRUCTION IN NEAR-TERM 
 
REF: BAGHAD 4484 
 
1.(SBU)  Summary:  AMCON Adana conoffs visited the Habur gate on 
November 9, attending the weekly border meeting, discussing 
issues in side meetings with U.S. logistics officials and SOMO 
representatives and surveying the new Sirnak province vehicle 
staging yard.  The gate's operations were seen to be diminished 
by ongoing demolition and construction operations, which are 
part of the TOBB Chambers of Commerce-linked renovation project. 
 Discussion at the weekly meeting was stilted, but did feature a 
general acknowledgement by the Turkish MFA representative 
hosting the meeting that fuel issues were a central issue for 
Iraq in the coming months.  Turkish trucker groups also demanded 
"an end to prejudicial practices which give priority to 
coalition cargo and SOMO trucks."  Turkish officials, in sidebar 
discussions, noted continuing GoT sensitivity about fuel 
smuggling within and into Turkey.  End Summary: 
 
Weekly Meeting pro forma... 
------------------------------ 
 
2.(SBU)  Discussion at the weekly meeting was stilted.  Both 
Iraqi customs officials and the SOMO representative stressed 
that energy issues were a central concern for Iraq in the coming 
months and called on Turkey to do all it could to assist Iraqi 
reconstruction through speedy provision of energy resources. 
The SOMO representative noted that Iraq also needed more Turkish 
electrical power, eliciting a Turkish reply that Sirnak province 
itself, where the Habur gate is situated, is short of electrical 
power and that work on the gate renovation project has been 
slowed by the need to rely on old, under-capacity generators 
part of each work day.  Nevertheless, this Turkish-Iraqi 
exchange eventually yielded a general oral reflection by the 
Turkish MFA representative, who noted his own lack of authority 
to take a formal position, that fuel issues were a central issue 
for Iraq in the coming months.   The MFA representative also 
said that he "informally would like to say that SOMO's payment 
of its bills might assist the situation."  Still, he said that 
his door was "open anytime to Iraqi customs officials with 
specific proposals to discuss." 
 
...Except for Turkish Trucker complaints 
---------------------------------------- 
 
3.(SBU)   Turkish trucker groups also demanded "an end to 
prejudicial practices which give priority to coalition cargo and 
SOMO trucks."  Specifically, they complained that northbound 
coalition non-fuel cargo trucks should not be given 
"preferential treatment to re-enter Turkey."  "They have no 
refrigerated cargo or special materials in them coming back. 
They can wait like everyone else," he said," and all those 
tanker probably don't need to go to the front of the line." Upon 
some counter commentary by several Iraqi officials, he seemed to 
distance himself from including coalition tankers in his 
demands.  (Comment:  Turkish officials later said that they have 
to "deal with trucker group demands," but would not be driven by 
them on pressing "real coalition needs."  Nevertheless, it 
seemed that they did not mind the trucker group statements since 
they were illustrative of the other factors at work at the gate 
beyond Iraqi and Coalition fuel concerns.  End Comment.).Turkish 
officials, in sidebar discussions, also noted continuing GoT 
sensitivity about fuel smuggling into Iraq.  They also said that 
unnamed Turkish security officials were concerned about a "lack 
of central authority" and a "power vacuum," explaining why 
security screening northbound had been increased in the last 
week.  Without being too laudatory, they also expressed 
contentment with corresponding  Iraqi security pre-screening. 
 
SOMO explains its attempts to diversify northern route fuel 
sources 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
--------- 
 
4.(SBU)  The SOMO representative also announced that SOMO and 
TPIC, the Turkish State Petroleum Company, had signed a deal on 
or about Nov. 8 for construction of a small pipeline near the 
Habur Gate.  He said that the pipeline's initial capacity would 
amount to about 60 tankers a day of current Habur gate transit 
traffic (out of a daily SOMO-desired 1,000 transits a day), but 
could grow in capacity to a possible 100-120 tanker-a-day 
equivalent "in the future."  He said that construction of the 
pipeline from a TPIC existing spur line to the Turkish-Iraqi 
border already was almost complete.  (Comment:  U.S. military 
sources knowledgeable of the pipeline said it was a good start, 
but far too small a capacity to affect civilian fuel supply 
shortages.  They also said that any growth in its initial 
capacity was many months to over a year distant.  End Comment.) 
Iraqi border officials were silent on when the matching 
receiving pipeline would be ready, but the SOMO official said it 
was "an important project for (SOMO) to complete."  The SOMO 
representative also recalled to the group that Iraq had opened 
its al-Hrabiyah border gate with Syria for fuel transits, but 
that its capacity was limited to about a maximum of a hundred 
tankers a day.  Turkish officials observed that Turkish truckers 
had used that gate briefly before and there were too many 
security problems in the area near Tal Afar for it to be a 
sustainable answer.  The SOMO representative said that a new 
Iraqi military or police unit provided security now and that the 
al-Hrabiyah gate was closed to Turkish drivers.  Still, he 
agreed that the gate's capacity was limited.  Both Iraqi customs 
officials and the SOMO representative also agreed that the rail 
spur from Turkey (at Nusaybin) to Iraq through Syria was too 
costly and ill maintained for weighty fuel and cement loads, but 
was being used now for some limited delivery of food and light 
cargo. 
 
SOMO sidebar 
---------------- 
 
5.(SBU)  AMCON Adana conoffs spoke with the SOMO representative 
on the margin of the meetings to pass on observations that few 
SOMO-related tankers had been observed moving toward the Habur 
gate Nov. 7-9.  Asked about the Turkish MFA representative's 
observation on the catalyst additional payments to SOMO might 
make, the SOMO representative said that the Iraqi Finance 
Ministry insisted that it did not have the remaining USD 350 
million that SOMO thought it still owed.  He said he would pass 
on the Turkish comments and that SOMO probably would ask the 
Coalition to pay its fuel debt. 
 
New Staging Yard could help, but not a panacea 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
6.(SBU) AMCON Adana conoffs then surveyed the new Sirnak 
province vehicle staging yard which is claimed to have a 5,000 
vehicle marshalling capacity.  It lies directly outside the 
entrance to the Habur Gate customs control area and is enclosed 
by a concrete and block wall with occasional (unmanned) watch 
towers.  A restaurant, bathroom complex, showers, and small 
mosque were under construction.  We were told that there were 
3,000 vehicles in the yard, which reportedly opened on or about 
Nov. 7.  We spot counted about 350 tankers in a corner of the 
yard, suggesting that the overall 3,000 count seemed roughly 
credible.  Vehicles were divided into tanker and non-tankers and 
it appeared there was a de facto policy to park LNG/LPG tankers 
outside the facility.  It is staffed by twenty province 
employees from random province departments and is charging five 
YTL (or about USD3.50) for each stay.  Overall, it creates a 
staging capability which did not exist before which may 
facilitate tracking coalition cargo.  Its chief drawbacks 
appeared to be its dirt and stone parking bed, which could well 
turn to mud as soon as winter rains arrive, and inexperienced 
staff who never had worked with traffic or cargo before the 
prior week.  Several police were directing traffic near its 
entrance when we arrived, but there were no police or staff 
directing traffic inside.  Nor were there any outside when we 
left a half hour later.  (Comment: Local staff at the yard 
plainly said that the province had built the yard as a money 
maker perceiving that the province, despite bearing traffic and 
road costs, was making no revenue from transiting cargo without 
such a method to get involved in gate-related revenue 
collection.  End Comment.) 
 
TOBB pleased with progress, but sees extension necessary 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
7.(SBU)  Conoffs met later with the Sirnak TOBB representative, 
who expressed pleasure at the pace of demolition and initial 
construction at the gate site so far.  Nevertheless, he said 
that some materials scheduling delays, additional GoT small 
projects and poor power provisions were slowing progress.  He 
suggested that TOBB soon would request a four-month extension to 
the project, which currently is set to conclude in June, 2006. 
He also confirmed that expanding gate capacity was not an aim of 
the renovation project.  Instead its focus is modernizing the 
gate's automated systems, replacing its processing lanes and 
parking aprons, and re-surfacing its two bridges. 
 
Comment 
---------- 
 
8 (SBU)  The poor physical state of the gate was striking.  We 
found it remarkable that the gate was managing to operate at all 
given widespread demolition, scattered piles of construction 
material on customs aprons, widespread debris fields, and 
seemingly endless snaking internal movement of vehicles. 
Discussion of boosting its capacity until much more of the 
renovation project is completed is not likely to be fruitful. 
End Comment. 
REID