The volume of oil exported by Iraq under UN supervision plunged last week from 18.6 million to 11.2 million barrels, the office administering the United Nations oil-for-food program said Tuesday, November 27. In the week ending November 23, there were five loadings at Iraq's gulf port of Mina Al-Bakr and four at the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, the only export outlets authorized under sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
The average price of Iraqi crude continued to slide last week to about $15.15 (17.20 euros) a barrel and revenue was estimated at $170 million (192 million euros), the office said. Revenue so far in the current phase of the program, which runs from July 4 to November 30, is about 5.6 billion euros, or $4.93 billion.
The price of Iraqi oil has fallen from $24.30 a barrel since mid-September. Iraq has sold 281.3 million barrels of crude in the current phase, the 10th since the program was set up in December 1996 to alleviate the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis. Orders are outstanding for another 114.7 million barrels. No new contracts were approved by the independent oil overseers last week, the office said.
Only 72 percent of Iraq's oil revenues is available to pay for imports under the program: 59 percent in government-controlled areas in central and southern Iraq and 13 percent for the northern Kurdish region, where goods are distributed by the UN. Another 25 percent is used to compensate Kuwait for war damages, and the remaining three percent covers the administrative costs of the program and of the UN commission monitoring Iraq's disarmament. — (AFP, United Nations)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
