The
total value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council’s 661
sanctions committee decreased last week, both in absolute and relative terms,
after months of gradual increase. Overall,
1,691 contracts worth $3.5 billion were on hold, representing 17.1 per cent of
the value of all contracts circulated to the 661 Committee.
Of the total “holds”, 1,144 contracts worth $3.07 billion were for
humanitarian supplies, while 547 contracts valued at $440 million were for oil
industry spare parts and equipment.
In
the week 28 April to 4 May 2001, the Committee released from hold 40 contracts
worth $201.4 million and placed on hold 32 new contracts valued at $107.8
million.
A single contract for the electricity sector with a value of $110
million was among those recently released from hold, as well as a number of
contracts for irrigation systems, animal vaccines, tug boats for Umm Qasr
port, gas turbine equipment and a waste-water treatment plant.
New contracts put on hold by the Committee included water treatment and
electro-mechanical equipment, pipes, valves, a television transmitter, medical
machines and a tyre-testing machine.
In
currently active phases IV to IX of the oil-for-food programme, the 661
Committee and the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) have approved 7,581
contracts worth $16.5 billion for the purchase of humanitarian supplies,
including 1,880 contracts worth $4.45 billion processed by OIP under
“fast-track” procedures based on pre-approved lists of supplies.
In addition, the Committee has approved 2,443 contracts worth over
$1.33 billion for the purchase of oil industry spare parts and equipment,
while OIP has “fast-tracked” another 210 contracts worth $154 million in
this category.
At
a briefing to the 661 Committee on 4 May, the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), which observes the distribution of supplies for the
telecommunications sector in central and southern Iraq and implements projects
in northern Iraq on behalf of the Government of Iraq under the programme,
informed that the entire telecommunications infrastructure in Iraq had
deteriorated seriously. It noted
a decrease in telephone density from 5.6 per cent in 1990 to about 3.3 per
cent in 1998, as well as a drop in the inter-exchange transmission links from
20,000 to 7,000 during the same period. As
at 25 April 2001, 154 contracts worth $279 million for this sector had been
circulated to the 661 Committee, of which 83 contracts valued at $71 million
had been approved and 71 contracts worth $208 million had been placed on hold
by the Committee.
In
the week under review, Iraq exported 14.4 million barrels of oil, at the rate
of 2.06 million barrels per day, raising an estimated €371 million
(euros) in revenue at current prices.
Of the total nine loadings, five were at Mina al-Bakr terminal, with
the lifting of 8.5 million barrels of oil, while four were at Ceyhan terminal,
with the lifting of 5.9 million barrels.
The average price of Iraqi crude oil during the week was approximately
$22.92 or €25.76 (euros) per barrel.
Iraqi
oil exports in current phase IX, so far, total 224.7 million barrels, having
generated an estimated €5 billion (euros)
in revenue. Since the start of
the programme on 10 December 1996, Iraq has exported over 2.4 billion barrels
of oil, for an estimated revenue of some $38.6 billion and €5 billion
(euros).
During
the week, the United Nations oil overseers approved two new oil purchase
contracts for six million barrels of Basrah Light and two million barrels of
Kirkuk crude. Currently, there
are 160 approved contracts for the lifting of over 495 million barrels of oil,
of which 301 million are for Basrah Light and 194
million for Kirkuk.
