9 August 2006
More than two months after taking over Iraq’s embattled oil sector and pledging to fight corruption, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani is taking timid steps to put the ministry back on track.
Al-Shahristani’s first move has been to oust directors-general who were appointed on political merit or as a result of pressure from influential politicians. The purge involves about six employees who were brought in as directors but did not head any of the ministry’s directorates.
“He gave them a choice either to take early retirement or accept a demotion and stay in the ministry,” one ministry source told International Oil Daily Tuesday.
Furthermore, al-Shahristani has empowered his three deputy ministers, who had been sidelined previously for the benefit of advisers and committees set up by his predecessor. Ministry sources said they were encouraged by the move, which signals that the minister is returning to the structures and hierarchy of the ministry.
The three deputies are Abdul Jabar al-Waqaa, who will be in charge of upstream; Ahmad al-Shamaa, who will run the downstream division; and Mutassim Akram Hassan, who has been picked to handle transport operations.
Former adviser in the minister’s office, Karim Hattab, has been appointed director-general of the state Oil Distribution Co.
The position of director-general for economic affairs and marketing, a position created by former Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, has been cancelled. That position mirrored the duties held by the director-general of State Oil Marketing Organization (Somo), which has long been the official marketing arm of the ministry.
The strife between the ministry and Somo over the marketing of Iraq’s crude and refined products, as well as managing the imports of fuel from neighboring countries — an operation fraught with corruption and mismanagement — left the state marketer in a dire state. Somo’s staff has been inflated by 50% in the past two years to over 150 employees and veterans, including senior directors Kadhim Razouki and Hashem al-Wardi, have taken long leaves of absence.
Somo’s last director-general, Falah al-Amiri, appointed early this year, has also chosen to take a leave of absence and former Director-General Mussab Dujaili stepped in again in an acting position.
“There will be changes in the management of Somo very soon,” the ministry source said.
Oil ministry sources say al-Shahristani is facing an uphill task in trying to stamp out corruption while at the same time boosting Iraq’s oil production and export capacity. Security remains a major issue in Iraq, which further complicates al-Shahristani’s task. About 100 Iraqi civilians are killed daily in the country despite the introduction of a security plan by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the increased deployment of US forces.
Kidnappings have also plagued the oil ministry, with two senior staff still missing. The director-general of the State Company for Oil Projects (Scop), Muthana al-Badri, was kidnapped in Baghdad in June. That kidnapping was followed by the late July kidnapping of the director-general of the North Oil Co. (NOC), Adel al-Qazaz. Al-Qazaz was taken while returning to NOC’s headquarters in the northern city of Kirkuk after attending a meeting at the ministry.
Al-Shahristani has appointed ministry veteran Falah al-Khawaja as successor to al-Badri as head of Scop, but a new appointment at NOC is more controversial due to the ethnic disputes over Kirkuk and Kurdish claims over senior jobs in the city and the oil sector in particular. Manaa al-Obeidi, a longtime NOC executive, has been running the company in an acting position since the disappearance of al-Qazaz.
Prime Minister al-Maliki also intends to set up an advisory committee headed by former oil minister and ministry veteran Thamer al-Ghadban. The advisory committee will offer advice to the cabinet on oil and gas issues, sources close to al-Maliki told International Oil Daily, though an official announcement has not yet been made. Al-Ghadban would also become a member of the ministerial Energy Council headed by Deputy Premier Barham Saleh.
By Ruba Husari, Dubai
(Published in International Oil Daily Aug. 9, 2006)