[casi] New Iraqi Director of Oil Ministry

["ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>]

Rumsfeld is hastily stacking US puppets into the Bremer-appointed "Iraq
Governing Council" [IGC] prior to urging United Nations  to recognize the
IGC as the Iraqi 'government'..  pg

Excerpt from the NYT article today on Iraq oil privatization:

..."Mr Bahr al-Uloum,  [now new Director-General of the Oil Ministry]  who
lived in London from 1992 until the US-led invasion of Iraq, joined an Iraqi
delegation in talks with the State Department on the postwar future of Iraq
in October last year. Fadhil Chalabi, a cousin of Ahmed Chalabi, the current
rotating president of the Governing Council, also attended the talks.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum says he was informed of his impending appointment three
weeks ago... ..."

------------------------------------

The entire NYT September 5, 2003 article:  http://tinyurl.com/mbcr

Iraqi minister sees oil privatisation obstacles
By Nicolas Pelham


Iraq is preparing plans for the privatisation of its giant oil sector, but a
decision will not be taken until after elections scheduled for two years'
time, Iraq's new oil minister on Thursday told the Financial Times.

"The new elected government at the end of the transitional period will
decide this issue," said Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, speaking in the back streets
of the Shia holy city of Najaf where his father is a senior cleric and
member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

"The Iraqi oil sector needs privatisation, but it's a cultural issue," he
said. "People lived for the last 30 to 40 years with this idea of
nationalism." Iraq nationalised the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1972.

Iraq has proven reserves of 112bn barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, with
the prospect of a great deal more in the little-explored western desert,
said the minister.

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view.
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But he said immediate production prospects had been hit by smuggling and
sabotage of pipelines. Oil exports averaged 645,000 barrels a day in August,
less than half pre-war levels, as explosions crippled the main northern
pipeline that used to carry about 1m b/d to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum called for the formation of an Iraqi "separate security
agency" supported by the Coalition Provisional Authority to defend oil
installations. He said the US lacked the manpower to protect pipelines and
there had been "too many explosions". On ownership of the industry, Mr Bahr
al-Uloum - a US-trained petroleum engineer - advocated the full
privatisation of downstream installations, such as refineries, but said he
would back production-sharing contracts upstream.

In a sign that Russian companies, in particular, may face difficulties
enforcing agreements with the Saddam Hussein regime to develop Iraqi oil, Mr
Bahr al-Uloum said priority would be given to US oil companies, "and
European companies, probably".

While insisting that privatisation was "the way to inject inspiration into
Iraqi industry", he said that in the transitional two-year period, he would
concentrate on rehabilitation of oilfields, rather than developing new ones.

"It is better to produce 750,000 b/d for one month than oscillating between
1.5 and 0.2m barrels. If oil production stabilises then I'll increase
production slowly, slowly," said the minister. Pre-war production is
estimated at around 2.5m b/d.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum, who lived in London from 1992 until the US-led invasion of
Iraq, joined an Iraqi delegation in talks with the State Department on the
postwar future of Iraq in October last year. Fadhil Chalabi, a cousin of
Ahmed Chalabi, the current rotating president of the Governing Council, also
attended the talks.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum, who says he was informed of his impending appointment
three weeks ago, said neighbouring Gulf states had offered to help in
rehabilitation of the oil sector's infrastructures, damaged by the war and
subsequent looting. He said the offer was made during last month's tour of
the Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan by Iraq's Interim Council, adding that the
Kuwaiti Oil Company - where he worked as an engineer in the 1970s - was
among possible partners.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum said Iraq had been invited to the next meeting of the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on October 24 in Vienna, and
that he planned to attend. Iraq has an Opec quota of 3.2m b/d, which he said
he did not expect would be reached until the end of the transitional period.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum said that "a Ba'athist with a bad record has to be out" of
his ministry, but that he would seek to retain all the efforts of Iraq's
technocrats.

Fifteen portrait photographs of the 27 relatives he said were killed by the
regime of Saddam Hussein looked down from the sitting-room wall as he spoke.
He said Thamir Ghadhban, director-general of the oil ministry who had been
tipped to take the ministerial portfolio, would be retained as an adviser.






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