7 May 2003 A combination of rundown power infrastructure and war damage is forcing Iraq to import oil products to relieve severe shortages that have almost brought the country to a halt. The first shipments of gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas from Turkey and Kuwait are due to arrive this week, Iraqi and US sources said. At the same time, the northern Baiji refinery resumed minimal operations on Tuesday. “We…
Tag: Turkey
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…
Iraq’s Baiji Refinery Sits Idle, Awaiting Power, Repair Work
29 April 2003 Iraq’s Baiji refinery — the biggest and newest of the country’s three main refineries — is being protected by members of the nearby Qaissi tribe. For the 5,000 workers at the Baiji refinery, 200 kilometers north of Baghdad, the first real contacts with US soldiers have yet to come. Hundreds of US army trucks can been seen moving north on the road from Baghdad to Mosul, but…
Iraq-Russia: What Now?
16 July 2001 Using its oil as both weapon and bribe, Iraq — thanks to Russia and some of its Arab neighbors — has thwarted US attempts to revamp the 11-year-old UN sanctions regime, and end Baghdad’s control over oil smuggling. For Washington, which launched the initiative in February as a cornerstone of its Mideast foreign policy, it’s back to the drawing board. A Russian “nyet” to the Anglo-American ideas…