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> Iraqi protest against the unjust embargo continues. It seems that the
> spirit of resistance remains unbroken. A very brave action after all
> the war talk of the Bush Aministration, and just before the 11th
> anniversary of Um Almaarik.
Thanks for the postings, Dirk.
About the slow down in Iraqi exports, I still don't have a good
understanding of events. There seem to be at least three possible
interpretations:
1. Iraq's oil industry has been failing, but public admissions of this are
feared as signals of weakness. Therefore production declines are presented
as acts of resistance.
2. the new pricing mechanisms, developed principally by the British, have
introduced sufficient extra costs into Iraq's oil selling as to make its
product uncompetitive.
3. the Iraqi government is deliberately withholding supplies in an act of
defiance.
I suspect that the actual reasons for declines involve a combination of
these. Oil people that I've spoken with do think that Iraq's production
ability has been fading, and that political factors have driven harmfully
high levels of output.
On spirits of resistance, there is a risk here: if everyone adopts a spirit
of resistance to the injustices of the other parties (the Iraqi government
to the unjust embargo, the US government to the Iraqi government's failure
to implement Security Council Resolutions) then no progress is made. The
people most hurt by lack of progress are not the Iraqi or American
governments, who get to appear tough and defiant, but the Iraqi people.
Yes, I would support the Iraqi government if and when it takes defiant
action to uphold the position of its population, but if doing so denies its
population much needed income, then I am much more hesitant to do so.
Colin Rowat
work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham |
Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | (+44/0) 121 414 3754 |
(+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk
personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) |
(707) 221 3672 (US fax) | colinrowat@yahoo.com
I included three more recent articles, all about oil, all very interesting.
- Top UN official in Iraq for talks on oil deal.
- Iraq to cap 2002 U.N. oil sales at 2.2 mbpd-MEES.
- Iraq attacks oil deal, ahead of visit by UN envoy.
Greetings.
Dirk Adriaensens.
No Iraq oil shipments since Sat., no flow scheduled.
NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - There have been no loadings of Iraq oil
tankers since Saturday and no loadings are scheduled, U.N. officials said
on Monday.
The stoppage of oil shipments has affected both Kirkuk crude which is
shipped out of Ceyhan, Turkey and Basrah Light crude from Mina al-Bakr,
Iraq, officials said.
There was a similar gap in loadings of Iraqi Kirkuk crude in Ceyhan, Turkey
between January 2 and January 9.
Iraq has been fighting with the U.N. Iraqi sanctions committee, which has
been setting oil prices retroactively since September. Baghdad claims the
retroactive policy is slowing shipments
because it means Iraq's oil customers lose money.
The United States and Britain have been blocking any attempts by Iraq to set
prices before shipments are made, claiming that setting prices retroactively
helps thwart a surcharge not allowed
in the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Baghdad has denied it charges oil buyers a surcharge. Industry sources say
the charge is 25 to 30 cents per barrel.
The head of the U.N. oil program, Benon Sevan, was due to arrive in Iraq on
Monday.
The ruling Baath party newspaper, al-Thawra, on Monday called the
oil-for-food program "evil" and "no substitute for the complete lifting of
the unjust embargo" which was placed on Baghdad in
August 1990, after it invaded Kuwait.
At Mina al-Bakr, the Ancona has been in line to load crude since Dec. 25,
but there were again no signs on Monday that it was ready to start loading
oil, U.N. officials said.
The Front Lady and the Berge Nisa both completed loading Basrah Light on
Saturday at Mina al-Bakr.At Ceyhan, the last tankers to load on Saturday
were the Lucky Sailor and the Front Champion, U.N. officials said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Top UN official in Iraq for talks on oil deal.
BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official arrived in Baghdad on
Monday to talk with Iraq about the troubled "oil-for-food" humanitarian
programme.
Benon Sevan, executive director of the programme and a U.N.
undersecretary-general, is due to spend three weeks in Iraq to discuss the
programme with U.N. and Iraqi government officials in his first trip to
Baghdad since August 2000.
The oil-for-food programme allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and
other humanitarian goods for Iraqis suffering under 11-year-old U.N.
sanctions.
_______________________________________
Iraq to cap 2002 U.N. oil sales at 2.2 mbpd-MEES.
NICOSIA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Iraq plans to cap 2002 U.N. oil sales at 2.2
million barrels per day (bpd), with 800,000 bpd to 900,000 bpd for internal
use and trade with Jordan, Turkey, Syria
and the Gulf, the Middle East Economic Survey said.
MEES detailed Iraq's oil supply plan for 2002 as follows: 2.2 million bpd
for United Nations sales, 350,000-400,000 bpd for internal use, 80,000 bpd
for Turkey, 110,000 bpd for Jordan,
180,000 bpd for Syria and 40,000 bpd for the Gulf.
Iraq's oil plans are based on a higher sustainable output capacity of 3.1
million bpd this year versus 2.8 million bpd in 2000/2001, the weekly
newsletter reported on Monday. The arrival of U.N.-approved spare parts has
made the increase possible.
Baghdad aims eventually to reach its pre-1990 production capacity of about
3.5 million bpd. Sustainable capacity has climbed from 2.4 million bpd in
1998 to the current level of 3.05
million bpd, according to MEES.
Output capacity of 3.1 million bpd should be reached in the next few months,
the newsletter said.
Iraqi officials told MEES the main reason the 3.5 million bpd mark has not
been hit is because the United States and Britain continue to refuse or put
on hold major contracts vital for development of the upstream sector.
A senior Iraqi oil official said that of $3.8 billion worth of equipment
ordered under the U.N. oil-for-food programme, Iraq has received about $1.2
billion worth of material.
Iraq boasts the second largest proven oil reserves in the world after Saudi
Arabia, with the latest official figure put at 112 billion barrels.
___________________________________________
Iraq attacks oil deal, ahead of visit by UN envoy.
BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A leading Iraqi newspaper on Monday called the
"oil-for-food" programme imposed on Baghdad by the United Nations "evil",
hours before the arrival of
a senior U.N. official to evaluate the troubled humanitarian programme.
"We do not consider the evil memorandum of understanding... as a permanent
agreement rather than an interim procedure and it is no substitute for the
complete lifting of the unjust embargo," the ruling Baath party newspaper
al-Thawra said.
The paper threatened that Iraq would "not accept the memorandum for ever".
Benon Sevan, executive director of the programme and a U.N.
undersecretary-general, was due to arrive in Iraq later on monday to review
the programme with U.N. and Iraqi government officials in his first trip to
Baghdad since August 2000.
The oil-for-food programme allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and
other humanitarian goods for Iraqis suffering under 11-year-old U.N.
sanctions. Oil revenues have to be deposited in a U.N. account out of which
the supplies and Gulf War reparations are paid.
Thawra sharply condemned the "wicked role" played by the U.N. Security
Council's Iraq sanctions committee, responsible for vetting most of Iraq's
purchases of goods under the oil pact. Any one of the council's 15 members
can block purchasing contracts.
The U.S. representative at the committee has blocked nearly $5 billion worth
of goods since the programme began five years ago. Sevan last week
criticised a recent surge in "holds"
imposed by the committee on purchases.
The paper said Iraq has sold oil under the pact worth $50 billion since
December 1996, but had received only $15 billion worth of goods.
"The U.N. cuts from the revenues have exceeded $18 billion, devoted to cover
the costs of the U.N. staff who serve in the Iraq programme, weapons
inspectors and the equipment used to
destroy Iraq's weapons and factories," it said.
U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in December 1998 and have not been
allowed back in.
Thawra said the revenue received by Iraq under the programme amounted to
only $10 per Iraqi per month which "does not cover basic necessities". Iraq
would not accept anything less than a lifting of the sanctions, it added.
Sevan is expected to discuss in Baghdad Iraq's refusal to grant visas for
U.N. staff or firms contracted by them for mine clearance in the northern
provinces of the country, where the
United Nations rather than Baghdad controls the humanitarian programme, U.N.
officials in New York said.
_________________________________________________________
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