Qualla: Majnoon Island https://qualla.com/majnoon-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Majnoon Island https://qualla.com/majnoon-island Majnoon Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/majnoon-island/ The word "majnoon" means "crazy" in Arabic, and the name fits. This flat, swampy expanse of mud and sand near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq seems an unlikely place for one of the world's largest oil deposits. Yet beneath these marshlands lie an estimated 12.6 billion barrels of recoverable crude, a reservoir so vast it helped reshape the geopolitics of the Middle East. Majnoon Island is not a natural island in the traditional sense. Its pathways were built from dredged sand dunes and packed mud, engineered corridors for the pipelines that carry oil from deep underground to the surface. It is a place constructed by ambition, fought over with poison gas, and fought over again in boardrooms half a world away.

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/majnoon-island-wp/tj98-majnoon-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Majnoon Island: Black Gold Beneath the Mud https://qualla.com/majnoon-island/ Brazilian petroleum company Braspetro discovered the Majnoon oilfield in 1975, drilling into a shallow Upper Cretaceous formation and finding it to be part of the Great Rumaila Triangle, one of the richest petroleum zones on Earth. Development moved fast. Before Iraq's war with I...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/majnoon-island-wp/tj98-majnoon-island-black-gold-beneath-the-mud.mp3 0:06 2 full Majnoon Island: The Marshes Turn Red https://qualla.com/majnoon-island/ In February 1984, Iranian forces launched Operation Kheibar, an amphibious assault through the Hawizeh Marshes aimed at capturing the oil-rich islands. Soldiers crossed the wetlands in motorboats and landed by helicopter onto the mudflats. They seized Majnoon, but the cost was st...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/majnoon-island-wp/tj98-majnoon-island-the-marshes-turn-red.mp3 0:06 3 full Majnoon Island: Sanctions, Invasion, and the Scramble for Control https://qualla.com/majnoon-island/ Production at Majnoon recovered after the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, but the reprieve was short. United Nations sanctions following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait strangled output. The 2003 Iraq War brought further disruption, and by the mid-2000s production had dropped to roug...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/majnoon-island-wp/tj98-majnoon-island-sanctions-invasion-and-the-scramble-for-control.mp3 0:06 4 full Majnoon Island: An Island Between Worlds https://qualla.com/majnoon-island/ Majnoon sits in the Hawizeh Marshes, a wetland ecosystem straddling the Iran-Iraq border that has sustained human communities for over 5,000 years. The Marsh Arabs who live in this region navigate by mashoof, slim canoe-like boats that glide through reed beds and open water. Oil ...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/majnoon-island-wp/tj98-majnoon-island-an-island-between-worlds.mp3 0:06 5 full