Monday, April 09, 2007
As oil exports grind to a halt, Iraq loses $165 mn a day
Oil, Finance
(Voices of Iraq) - Iraq is losing 165 million dollars a day as a result of halted crude oil exports via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, an Iraqi oil ministry official said on Sunday. "Exports of Iraqi crude oil via Ceyhan – 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) – are now defunct due to acts of sabotage targeting export-oriented pipelines," the official told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani had appealed to the Kirkuk local council on Friday to protect the ministry's oil facilities and pipeline networks from sabotage. Shahrestani said, "the production capacity in Kirkuk is sufficient to meet the needs of the northern refineries in Kirkuk and Baiji but exporting via Ceyhan has been stopped because of constant acts of sabotage, which cost Iraq millions of dollars in daily losses."The Kirkuk council had accused the oil ministry of dereliction and failure to upgrade Kirkuk's oil installations that date back to the 1950s.
Meanwhile, a ministry official said that the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Oil Company will start pumping 3500 tons of oil derivatives to Iraq, in accordance with a contract between the two countries, to meet Iraq's fuels needs. Salah Fallah al-Aamiri, director of the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company, told VOI "negotiations are underway with Turkish companies to secure the needs of the northern parts of Iraq."
Aamiri indicated that operations to import oil from Iran are now facing technical problems, adding that Iraq was reconsidering the contracts signed with Iran because of the latter's failure to honor the signed agreements. Another Iraqi oil ministry official told VOI that the rate of Iraqi crude oil exports hit 1.561 million bpd in March, from which 12,000 barrels were being marketed via Syrian territories while the rest via Iraq's southern oil terminals.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani had appealed to the Kirkuk local council on Friday to protect the ministry's oil facilities and pipeline networks from sabotage. Shahrestani said, "the production capacity in Kirkuk is sufficient to meet the needs of the northern refineries in Kirkuk and Baiji but exporting via Ceyhan has been stopped because of constant acts of sabotage, which cost Iraq millions of dollars in daily losses."The Kirkuk council had accused the oil ministry of dereliction and failure to upgrade Kirkuk's oil installations that date back to the 1950s.
Meanwhile, a ministry official said that the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Oil Company will start pumping 3500 tons of oil derivatives to Iraq, in accordance with a contract between the two countries, to meet Iraq's fuels needs. Salah Fallah al-Aamiri, director of the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company, told VOI "negotiations are underway with Turkish companies to secure the needs of the northern parts of Iraq."
Aamiri indicated that operations to import oil from Iran are now facing technical problems, adding that Iraq was reconsidering the contracts signed with Iran because of the latter's failure to honor the signed agreements. Another Iraqi oil ministry official told VOI that the rate of Iraqi crude oil exports hit 1.561 million bpd in March, from which 12,000 barrels were being marketed via Syrian territories while the rest via Iraq's southern oil terminals.
Labels: Ceyhan, Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraqi-Kuwaiti Oil Company, oil, sabotage, Salah Fallah al-Aamiri
