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…

US Wants Iraqi Ministries Running Soon; Political Plan Unclear

25  April 2003 The chief civil administrator of Iraq, retired US general Jay Garner, announced Thursday that the process of governing Iraq would start next week with the reopening of ministries “which will have Iraqi faces on them” to offer services to the public. Garner also stressed that Iraqi exiles enlisted by Washington to help run important sectors, such as oil, would only be deployed on a temporary basis. But…