Who Runs Somo

7 September 2001

A fresh shakeup in the Iraqi oil industry has left Oil Ministry employees — not to mention industry observers and traders — puzzled as to who is in charge of Somo, Iraq’s influential state marketing organization.

The latest change came shortly after a reshuffle among top echelons at the ministry and at key state energy companies. Last month, Oil Minister Amer Rashid appointed Somo’s former executive director, Saddam Hasan, director-general of administration and legal affairs at the ministry. Rafid al-Dubuni, previously director general of Northern Oil Co., was appointed executive director of Somo as of Sep. 1.

But before any of the appointees took up their jobs, Saddam Hasan was unexpectedly promoted to the entirely new post of undersecretary for distribution, transportation, and training. Within the ministry, the rumor is that his responsibilities include “external distribution” — in other words, oil exports. Sources in Baghdad say Al-Dubuni has still not moved into the Somo offices, while traders who normally deal with Somo say their main contact recently has been Ali Rajab, a junior Somo official.

The naming of Hasan — commercial attaché at the Iraqi embassy in London before 1991 — to a high-profile position at the ministry so soon after the first set of appointments is said to result from political or “family” pressure. Hasan comes from Al-Awjah in the Tikrit region, and has family ties to Saddam Hussein’s half-brothers. The Iraqi president is said to favor a certain balance among tribes from his home region.

The task of marketing Iraq’s oil has traditionally fallen to the oil minister himself, rather than the ministry. So if the rumors are true and the new undersecretary job includes external oil marketing, that weakens the minister’s authority. The question then becomes: Does Somo’s executive director report directly to the minister, or through the undersecretary? “The only person who knows the answer is the one who appointed the undersecretary,” one insider says.

By Ruba Husari, London

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