Iraq's government and parliament have each launched an investigation into suspected oil smuggling in Jurf al-Sakhr, an area south of Baghdad, after a confidential intelligence report used satellite imagery to document five years of tanker movements near oil pipelines.

Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi ordered a temporary committee of lawmakers on Wednesday after an expanded meeting with the heads of the parliamentary blocs, according to a statement from his media office. The committee will examine intelligence about a route used to smuggle Iraqi oil from fields in Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region through Iran to Afghanistan.

The parliamentary committee will be made up of the heads of several standing committees, including finance, oil and gas, integrity, legal affairs, regions and governorates, and border crossings. It will be chaired by the head of the security and defence committee and will report its findings to the speaker's office.

The same meeting also discussed the technical intelligence report on Jurf al-Sakhr, also known as Jurf al-Nasr, and the attack on the Khor Mor gas field in Sulaimani province. The statement gave no figures for the volumes said to have been smuggled, did not say who prepared the intelligence and named no suspects.

Government inquiry runs in parallel

Separately, the government has set up its own investigation. General AbdulAmir al-Shammari, director of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, instructed Lieutenant General Saad Mohsen Uraibi to chair the inquiry, according to a document dated Tuesday and seen by Shafaq News.

That committee includes the commander of the Federal Police, the head of the Popular Mobilization Forces' General Directorate of Security and Discipline, and representatives of the Federal Integrity Commission and the Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency.

The 19-page intelligence report obtained by Shafaq News found that large tankers had repeatedly visited sites near oil pipelines in Jurf al-Sakhr, in northern Babil province, between 2021 and 2026. It also identified facilities suspected of being used to store oil, some of them underground and hidden under steel structures. The report said the area is under the control and protection of an armed faction, without naming it.

Babil Governor Ali Turki al-Jamali denied the smuggling reports, saying no oil pipeline runs through the area. During an unannounced evening tour of the area with journalists, he said GPS coordinates visible in an image aired by some media outlets led to an old fuel station named Al-Madina Al-Munawwara.

Khor Mor attack also under investigation

The Khor Mor gas field, in the Chamchamal district, was hit late on Sunday night. The strike set the facility on fire and forced Dana Gas to halt production temporarily, cutting the hours of electricity supplied to homes across the Kurdistan Region.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Wednesday ordered investigators to finish their work on the attack as quickly as possible and promised tough legal action against anyone found to be involved.

Oil smuggling has long been a point of friction between Baghdad and Erbil, and parliament has set up committees on the issue before. Halbousi himself led a fact-finding effort on Kurdistan Region oil exports in 2019, when he chaired parliament's oil and energy committee.