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| Iraq |
| Iraq: Oil production nears pre-war levels |
| 2004-02-07 |
| Edited for brevity When Manaa al-Obaydi returned to his job as deputy general director of Iraq’s North Oil Co. last April 11, what he saw almost made him turn around and go straight home. Buildings had been looted right down to the walls. Vast file rooms had been set ablaze. There were no offices. No cars. No chairs. While the vulnerable oil wells around Kirkuk escaped the kind of devastating blazes seen in Kuwait after the first Gulf War, looters had removed crucial equipment from pumping stations and other points in the network. Over the past nine months, however, al-Obaydi and other oil workers have produced a remarkable turnaround. An industry that was incapable of moving a drop of oil in April now is close to producing at prewar levels. For both Iraq and the world, a great deal depends on the recovery. The country’s proven oil reserves total 112 billion barrels, the third largest in the world. Iraq "makes an oilman’s mouth water," said Robert McKee, the senior American adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Oil. "You could turn this into a mecca for oil." Iraq is producing as much as 2.4 million barrels of oil a day, just short of the 2.5 million barrels a day pumped before the war, McKee said. Some private research firms offer a more conservative assessment, pegging daily average production at slightly less than 2 million barrels in December. Southern Iraq’s oil infrastructure has recovered faster than in the north. The main offshore terminal at Mina al-Bakr is open and receiving foreign tankers. But the main pipeline for exporting northern Iraq’s oil to Ceyhan, a Mediterranean seaport in Turkey, is closed because of damage caused by bombers and thieves. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #2 --"You could turn this into a mecca for oil."-- Uh, oh, fatwa alert - he blasphemed. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-2-7 1:16:43 PM |
| #1 In my mind, the "looters" in Iraq belong to the same bunch of thugs who ravaged Kuwait city, stole anything of value, and set the oil fields ablaze. The events in April were just a continuation of Saddam's scorched earth policy. As well as an attempt to destroy evidence of the regime's crimes. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-2-7 12:34:57 PM |