Iraq exported a total of 12.9 million barrels of oil under UN supervision in the second half of December, the office administering the oil-for-food program said Wednesday.
The export levels -- 7.2 million barrels shipped from December 16 to December 22 and 5.7 million barrels between December 23 and 29 -- were well below the average for Iraq, which usually exports about 2.4 million barrels a day. The average price was 18 dollars a barrel.
Six shipments of crude were loaded at Iraq's Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr and one at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, on December 29, the office of the Iraq program said.
Since the start of the current 180-day phase of the program on December 6, Iraqi oil exports have earned an estimated 302 million dollars in revenue since December 6, the start of the current 180-day phase of the program, the UN office said.
Iraq exported no oil at all for the first 12 days of December because of a dispute with the United Nations' sanctions committee over the pricing formula for that month.
But the sanctions committee has approved January prices for Iraqi oil except for the price of Kirkuk crude destined for the European market, the UN office said.
Iraq has exported 2.222 billion barrels of oil since the program started December 10, 1996, for an estimated revenue of more than $38.9 billion.
Up until last month, 66 percent of the revenue was available for food, medicine and other imports exempted by the UN from the sanctions it imposed on Iraq after the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
But the Security Council decided to increase that figure to 71 percent, and to cut from 30 to 25 percent the amount set aside to compensate Kuwait. The remaining four percent of revenue goes to meet UN administrative costs.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
