By Missy Ryan
BAGHDAD, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Iraq's specialised Oil Police will only be ready to take over full responsibility for protecting the nation's oil pipelines from theft and attack by late 2010, a top U.S. official said on Sunday.
"They need training. They need equipment. They need quality of life. They need to grow a little bit to take over," Lieutenant General Frank Helmick, head of U.S. military efforts to train Iraqi police and soldiers, said in an interview.
The web of pipelines connecting Iraqi oil fields, refineries and export facilities has peerless economic value for a country sitting on the world's third largest oil reserves.
Oil exports account for virtually all Iraqi government revenues, desperately needed to rebuild a country in tatters after five years of war and decades of neglect. The oil sector is by far the largest industry in its struggling economy.
But Iraq's oil infrastructure has suffered repeated insurgent attacks in the lawlessness since 2003. Smuggling has also been a major, and costly, problem.
"Right now the Ministry of Defence is on a very strategic piece of the pipeline that was in need of a security force that was credible in 2006/07 ... Oil police will not be able to take over that section of the pipeline until, my guess is, late 2010," Helmick said.
Iraqi soldiers, under Defence Ministry authority, currently guard the most valuable section of the oil pipeline, Helmick said. The Oil Police, which migrated earlier this year from the control of the Oil Ministry to the Interior Ministry, guard other areas.
In total Iraqi forces are seeking to safeguard 7,500 km (4,500 miles) of pipeline across the nation, according to U.S. figures.
Major General Hamid, commander of Iraq's Oil Police, has estimated his forces will be ready to take over full pipeline protection by 2012, according to U.S. officials. Hamid says that goal will be attainable only with sufficient funding.
The U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is hoping to conclude lucrative contracts with major foreign oil firms. A bidding process is underway, but foreign firms have in the past expressed worry about security and investment conditions in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Greg Mahlich)