Oil Veteran Appointed to Get Iraqi Industry Back on Track

6 May 2003 The US-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq (ORHA) on Saturday announced the appointment of the director general of planning at the Iraqi oil ministry, Thamer al-Ghadban, as chief executive of the interim management team for the Iraqi oil sector. It did not set a timeframe for the interim management of the oil ministry and companies under its auspices, which al-Ghadban will also be in…

Oil Board Firms Up in Iraq; Somo Shattered

1 May 2003 US plans to set up an advisory board to oversee Iraq’s oil sector are taking shape. Fadhil Othman, a retired Iraqi oil marketing official now living in Turkey, is understood to have accepted Washington’s request that he serve as deputy head of the oil advisory board, a non-executive body. In view of Othman’s past experience as head of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (Somo), he “could be…

US Asserts Authority at Iraqi Oil Ministry

30 April 2003 A senior US official from the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) made a first visit to the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad on Tuesday, delivering instructions from ORHA chief Jay Garner that the status quo be preserved at the ministry for the time being. In the first meeting since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the occupation of Iraq by US forces, ORHA senior…

Iraqis Gather to Discuss Political Future

29 April 2003 About 300 Iraqis — most of them exiles until the recent fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime — met in Baghdad on Monday under the leadership of US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and began debating the process of setting up an interim Iraqi government. The Baghdad session is the fourth in a series that started in London in mid-December with a meeting of most political groupings of Iraqi exiles…