(21
– 27 September 2002)
Dropping
from the previous week’s high of 1.9 million barrels per day, Iraqi oil
exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme reached just over 1.1
million barrels per day in the week ending 27 September. The total volume of 7.9 million barrels were shipped in three
loadings each from the two authorized terminals of Mina al-Bakr and Ceyhan.
The week’s exports raised an estimated €215
million (euros) or $210 million in revenue, at current prices and rate of
exchange. The average price of Iraqi crude oil was €27.10 or $26.55
per barrel.
The
United Nations oil overseers approved six new oil purchase contracts for 16
million barrels of crude oil, bringing their total in current phase XII of the
programme to 170, covering almost 401 million barrels of oil.
To date, holders of approved oil purchase contracts have lifted 119.3
million barrels of oil in this phase, worth approximately €2.99 billion or
$2.93 billion. The rate of Iraqi oil exports under the programme during
September was 1.25 million barrels per day, which was 48 per cent more than in
August. Phase XII runs from 30
May to 25 November 2002.
With
a persisting revenue shortfall accrued in earlier phases, 1,308 approved
humanitarian supply contracts, worth over $2.36 billion, are without funds.
The sectors affected by the
revenue shortfall are: food handling with $437 million; agriculture with $411
million; electricity with $397 million; housing with $274 million; water and
sanitation with $259 million; health with $256 million; education with $166
million; telecommunications and transportation with $143 million and; food
with $18 million.
Iraq has exported some 3.1 billion
barrels of oil for an estimated revenue of $38.6 billion and €20.5 billion
($18.5 billion) since the start of the programme on 10 December 1996.
As of December 2000, the humanitarian programme has been receiving 72
per cent of the total oil revenue, while earlier the programme’s share of
the revenue was set at 66 per cent. Thus
far, more than $37.3 billion worth of contracts for the purchase of various
humanitarian supplies and equipment have been approved by the Security
Council’s 661 sanctions committee and the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP),
including about $3.4 billion worth of oil industry equipment.
Supplies and equipment worth over $24.8 billion have reached Iraq,
including $1.5 billion worth of oil industry equipment, while another $9.3
billion worth of supplies and equipment, for which funds have been available,
are in the production and delivery pipeline, including $1.8 billion worth of
oil industry equipment.
Since the start of implementation of
the new set of procedures under Security Council resolution 1409 (2002), based
on the Goods Review List (GRL), the United Nations Secretariat has processed
1,636 contracts for humanitarian supplies and equipment worth almost $2.69
billion. Of this total, 66.4 per
cent or 1,086 contracts worth about $1.29 billion have been approved by OIP
after having been assessed by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
as not containing any GRL items, including a number of contracts previously
placed on hold by the 661 Committee. UNMOVIC/IAEA
have categorized 522 contracts worth $1.37 billion (31.9 per cent) as “GRL
non-compliant”, requiring additional technical information from suppliers to
enable final assessment. So far, 28 contracts worth $31.3 million, or 1.7 per
cent, have been found to contain GRL items, of which seven contracts have been
approved and two rejected by the Committee, while the remainder are at various
stages of action either by the suppliers or the Committee.
Under paragraph 18 of the new set of
procedures, some $465 million worth of contracts previously on hold by the 661
Committee, have now been re-assessed as not to contain Goods Review List (GRL)
items and, therefore, approved by OIP, while UNMOVIC/IAEA have requested
additional information from suppliers on $1.19 billion worth of contracts
previously on hold.
