| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Iraq | |
| Iraq could be ready to export oil in less than a month | |
| 2003-05-23 | |
| EFL. With the U.N. Security Council decision to end 13 years of sanctions, Iraq could begin to export oil on its own terms in as little as two to three weeks. But it could take two years for the mighty oil exporter to reach the prewar capacity of only a few months ago.
Gee, an old oil man who knows his job. He can't possibly work for the UN. Mohammed al-Juburi, the new director of SOMO, said Iraq has 8 million to 9 million barrels in storage in Ceyhan, Turkey, ready to be sold immediately. Mr. Carroll indicated last week that Iraq might choose not to rejoin the OPEC cartel if membership hobbles the country's ability to export as much oil as it can produce. Darn! But Iraqi oil ministry officials have since said they are committed to taking their place in the organization they helped found. It is not clear whether Iraq will send representatives to the cartel's next meeting, to be held in Qatar in June. Memo to Mr. al-Juburi: please see Mr. Carroll in his office. Immediately. Mr. Carroll, a former head of the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, said it would take as long as two years for Iraq to reach its prewar pumping capacity of roughly 2 million barrels per day. The country's oil infrastructure has suffered from a decade of poor maintenance and underinvestment, compounded by a month of increasingly sophisticated looting, he said. In the weeks since the war, well-organized thieves have tried to sabotage some wells and steal sophisticated equipment from refineries and pumping stations. "They were stealing cranes and trucks, and using that to literally steal other valuable equipment like engines and gauges," Mr. Carroll said. Iraq, which is believed to have the second-largest oil reserves on earth, has been paralyzed since the war's end by an acute shortage of fuel and liquefied natural gas. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Pipe and valves are cheap. Let'um go we'll fix it in the field. At least that's how The Great Bechtel has done it in the past. amomalus |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-05-23 19:36:15 |
| #3 Saudi is going down. Al and the Quedas want to destroy the oil gathering, production, and distribution infrastructure. Saudi does not have its collective sh-t together to really resist and eliminate the threat. The world needs Iraq up and running to balance out Saudi going down. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-23 15:57:45 |
| #2 The port of Umm Qasr, a primary port of entry and export, will open for commercial traffic today, which will significantly increase the future capabilities of the port to accept humanitarian assistance deliveries. via Central Command |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-05-23 09:44:44 |
| #1 Let's start pumping the oil. Okay, I'll admit it - one of the war's outcomes is to put more oil on the market, drive the price down and hopefully help the western economies. Was that the primary reason for the war? No. But it is one of the benefits. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-05-23 06:52:07 |