Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Fuel crisis in Baghdad
Iraq’s fuel crisis is worsening with filling stations running short of gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas. Long queues of cars stand at filling stations in Baghdad with drivers openly venting their wrath at the country’s leaders for failing to meet urgent needs. Iraq was self-sufficient with fuel before the U.S. invasion but has since been facing severe shortages despite having the third largest oil reserves worldwide. Government ministries are blaming each other for the crisis. The Ministry of Oil says power cuts are leading to fuel shortages while the Ministry of Electricity says fuel shortages are leading to power failures.
Iraq which used to export fuel products under former leader Saddam Hussein despite U.N. trade sanctions is currently importing oil from Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait. It has upped its fuel import bill to $800 for this year. The country’s three main refineries are reported to be running at less than half their capacity mainly because of repeated insurgent attacks on pipelines. Despite the substantial hike in allocations for fuel imports, fuel shortages have not improved. The current shortages have made the cost of gasoline, kerosene and cooking oil extremely expensive and beyond reach for many families. A liter of gasoline on the black market now costs more than 1,500 dinars (US$ 1) in Baghdad. A senior oil official in charge of the Northern Fuel Distribution Company said last week both Turkey and Syria had stopped shipping oil to Iraq. He did not say what prompted the countries to halt shipments but last year Turkey prevented fuel trucks from crossing its border into Iraq due to government’s failure to pay.
Iraq which used to export fuel products under former leader Saddam Hussein despite U.N. trade sanctions is currently importing oil from Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait. It has upped its fuel import bill to $800 for this year. The country’s three main refineries are reported to be running at less than half their capacity mainly because of repeated insurgent attacks on pipelines. Despite the substantial hike in allocations for fuel imports, fuel shortages have not improved. The current shortages have made the cost of gasoline, kerosene and cooking oil extremely expensive and beyond reach for many families. A liter of gasoline on the black market now costs more than 1,500 dinars (US$ 1) in Baghdad. A senior oil official in charge of the Northern Fuel Distribution Company said last week both Turkey and Syria had stopped shipping oil to Iraq. He did not say what prompted the countries to halt shipments but last year Turkey prevented fuel trucks from crossing its border into Iraq due to government’s failure to pay.
COMMENT: Five employees of the state-owned North Oil Company, one of them a woman, were ambushed and killed in the northern outskirts of Baghdad as they drove into the capital. It is unclear if the motives were sectarian or whether the attack was part of the ongoing insurgent campaign to disrupt oil supply to Baghdad. The obvious tactic is to blow up the pipelines, another is to terrorise employees associated with oil supply. COMMENT ENDS.
