Having announced the suspension of its oil exports under the
United Nations oil-for-food programme, on 4 June 2001 Iraq stopped pumping oil
into the Iraq/Turkey pipeline. The flow of Iraqi oil through this pipeline
provides for loadings at Ceyhan terminal. The last vessel was loaded at Ceyhan
on 3 June, while at the second authorized terminal of Mina al-Bakr, one vessel
was in the process of completing loading on 5 June. Iraq has not scheduled any
new loadings for current phase IX of the programme, which has been extended to
3 July. The extension came into effect on 4 June.
In the week 26 May to 1 June 2001, Iraq exported 17.4
million barrels of oil, at the rate of almost 2.5 million barrels a day,
raising an estimated
€492 million
(euros) in revenue, at current prices. Of the total 12 loadings, seven
were at Mina al-Bakr, with the lifting of 11 million barrels of oil and five
at Ceyhan, with the lifting of 6.4 million barrels. The average price of Iraqi
crude oil during the week was approximately $24.10 or €28.30 per
barrel.
So far in phase IX, Iraqi oil exports have totaled 285.8
million barrels, for an estimated
€6.5 billion
in revenue, at current prices. Iraq’s oil exports since the beginning of the
programme on 10 December 1996 stand at about 2.49 billion barrels, having
generated an estimated revenue of some $38.6 billion and €6.5
billion.
The United Nations oil overseers during the week approved
one new oil purchase contracts for two million barrels of Kirkuk crude. There
are now 173 approved contracts for the lifting of more than 569 million
barrels of oil, of which 349
million barrels are for Basrah Light and 220 million for Kirkuk.
There was a significant drop in the total value of contracts
placed on hold by the Security Council’s 661 sanctions committee, following
the release from hold of some 410 contracts, worth $703.5 million by the
United States only. The reduction in “holds” brought their total value
from the previous week’s $3.7 billion to $2.96 billion. The current level of
“holds” represents 14 per cent of all contracts circulated to the
Committee. The released contracts were for such supplies as trucks, tanker
trucks, mobile cranes, firefighting vehicles, forklifts, excavators,
bulldozers, steel plates, pipes, compressors, medical equipment, laboratory
chemicals, generators, pumps, spare parts for various sectors, including oil
industry, welding, drilling and irrigation equipments, control, protection and
measuring systems for the electricity and oil industry sectors.
During the week, 30 new contracts worth $44.1 million were
placed on hold by the Committee.
In phases IV to IX that are currently active, the 661
Committee and the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) have approved 8,221
contracts, valued at $17.9 billion for the purchase of humanitarian supplies,
including 2,100 contracts worth $4.8 billion processed by OIP under
“fast-track” procedures, based on pre-approved lists of supplies. In
addition, the Committee has approved 2,584 contracts worth $1.42 billion for
the purchase of oil industry spare parts and equipment, while OIP has
“fast-tracked” another 256 contracts worth $226 million in this category.
The “fast-track” procedures began to be implemented in March 2000.
