Sunday, May 11, 2003
Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
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By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 1:37 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi oil experts, reassessing damage to their industry from postwar looting, have scaled back projections by one-third and expect to produce only 1 million barrels a day in June, the acting oil minister said Sunday.
In one sign of the energy shortfall in this oil-rich nation, Baghdad expects within two weeks to begin importing gasoline from neighboring Kuwait to help motorists who now line up for hours to buy scant supplies at city gas stations.
"There will be a clear improvement," said acting minister Thamir Ghadban.
As if to underscore the depth of the energy crisis, the news conference at which Ghadban and Iraq's acting electricity chief spoke had to be moved to a sunlit hallway when city power failed and lights went out in an Oil Ministry conference room.
Kareem Hasan, interim head of the national Electricity Commission, said the capital was receiving only 40 percent of its electricity needs, but "hopefully" full power will be restored within two months, when repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals.
Ghadban and Hasan, named to their interim posts by the U.S. occupation authorities, met to coordinate the supply of oil to Iraqi power installations.
Before the U.S.-British invasion shut down the industry in March, Iraq was producing about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil, of which at least 2.1 million barrels was exported. Heavy postwar looting of oilfield and other industrial equipment has slowed the industry's resumption of full production.
Iraqi oil specialists had predicted the industry might rebound to half its prewar production level in June, but Ghadban said that wouldn't happen.
"We were more optimistic, but after meeting with senior people from the various upstream companies, we are now more realistic," he said. "We shall meet that target" -- 1.5 million barrels a day -- "at a later date."
The "upstream" companies are state-owned enterprises at the crude-protection end of the industry.
Ghadban attributed the more pessimistic outlook to damage to equipment and to limited supplies of industrial water, needed in huge quantities for oilfield operations. Power shortages have reduced water-pumping capacity in many places.
Iraq's proven crude oil reserves -- at 112 billion barrels -- are second in size worldwide only to Saudi Arabia's. Oil had accounted for 95 percent of Iraqi revenues in recent years.
Since the mid-1990s, under international economic sanctions, Iraq has been able to export oil only under close U.N. supervision, using the proceeds largely to buy food and other humanitarian goods. The United States and Britain are seeking a lifting of the U.N. sanctions and restoration of open trade in Iraqi oil.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil,0,6572348.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
|
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
--------------------
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 1:37 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi oil experts, reassessing damage to their industry from postwar looting, have scaled back projections by one-third and expect to produce only 1 million barrels a day in June, the acting oil minister said Sunday.
In one sign of the energy shortfall in this oil-rich nation, Baghdad expects within two weeks to begin importing gasoline from neighboring Kuwait to help motorists who now line up for hours to buy scant supplies at city gas stations.
"There will be a clear improvement," said acting minister Thamir Ghadban.
As if to underscore the depth of the energy crisis, the news conference at which Ghadban and Iraq's acting electricity chief spoke had to be moved to a sunlit hallway when city power failed and lights went out in an Oil Ministry conference room.
Kareem Hasan, interim head of the national Electricity Commission, said the capital was receiving only 40 percent of its electricity needs, but "hopefully" full power will be restored within two months, when repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals.
Ghadban and Hasan, named to their interim posts by the U.S. occupation authorities, met to coordinate the supply of oil to Iraqi power installations.
Before the U.S.-British invasion shut down the industry in March, Iraq was producing about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil, of which at least 2.1 million barrels was exported. Heavy postwar looting of oilfield and other industrial equipment has slowed the industry's resumption of full production.
Iraqi oil specialists had predicted the industry might rebound to half its prewar production level in June, but Ghadban said that wouldn't happen.
"We were more optimistic, but after meeting with senior people from the various upstream companies, we are now more realistic," he said. "We shall meet that target" -- 1.5 million barrels a day -- "at a later date."
The "upstream" companies are state-owned enterprises at the crude-protection end of the industry.
Ghadban attributed the more pessimistic outlook to damage to equipment and to limited supplies of industrial water, needed in huge quantities for oilfield operations. Power shortages have reduced water-pumping capacity in many places.
Iraq's proven crude oil reserves -- at 112 billion barrels -- are second in size worldwide only to Saudi Arabia's. Oil had accounted for 95 percent of Iraqi revenues in recent years.
Since the mid-1990s, under international economic sanctions, Iraq has been able to export oil only under close U.N. supervision, using the proceeds largely to buy food and other humanitarian goods. The United States and Britain are seeking a lifting of the U.N. sanctions and restoration of open trade in Iraqi oil.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil,0,6572348.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
