NEWS: Iraqi aide resigns as oil output plunges
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. The New York Times
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2006
iht.com
BAGHDAD The Iraqi oil minister resigned Monday as gasoline shortages worsened and official figures for December showed that oil exports remained at or near their lowest point since the war began in March 2003.
The oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, quit after being placed on leave for condemning government price increases that tripled the cost of gasoline last month, setting off protests and long lines at the nation's gasoline pumps.
Oil exports averaged about 1.3 million barrels a day in December, far below exports of about two million barrels a day before the war, Bahr al-Uloum said. Rough weather in the Gulf was a major factor in the poor production levels, he said.
The figures disclosed Monday by Iraqi officials shed new light on the severe weaknesses in Iraq's energy infrastructure driven by acute electricity shortages and insurgent attacks on two large refineries that spurred a fuel crisis in Baghdad.
Across Iraq, meanwhile, insurgents renewed attacks on Iraqi security forces, striking a busload of police recruits with a suicide car bomb near Baquba, north of Baghdad, just after 11 a.m. Monday. Three of the dead were identified as police recruits but the other four were burned beyond recognition, according to the Interior Ministry. Thirteen others were wounded, including six police officers.
At Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, four American contractors were killed Sunday when their bus was struck by a seven-ton truck, the military said in a statement. Eighteen civilians were injured in the incident, which Marine officials said was an accident.
In Baghdad, the Turkish ambassador dodged an assassination attempt near the airport on Monday, the Iraqi police said. And in Kirkuk, which saw riots over fuel prices Sunday, a would-be suicide car bomber and the insurgent who had intended to photograph the attack both died at the gates of an Iraqi Army base when their car detonated prematurely, said Colonel Bakhtiar Abdullah of the Iraqi Army.
In all of last year 1,673 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed, according to official Iraqi government statistics obtained by Agence France-Presse. Yet Iraqi ministry figures have proved in the past to be far understated. An independent group that tracks the deaths of Iraqi security forces, Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, estimates that 2,569 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were killed last year. Last month there were 193 fatalities, down from a high of 304 in July, according to the group.
On Monday, Iraqi officials sought to assure the nation that the worst part of the fuel crisis had passed. The deputy prime minister, Ahmad Chalabi, who took over the Oil Ministry last week after Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari forced Bahr al-Uloum to take leave, declared that tanker trucks were once again transporting gasoline to the capital from the large northern refinery at Bayji. The truck drivers had refused to make the journey for two weeks because of threats from insurgents.
Yet in an interview Monday, Bahr al-Uloum estimated that only 15 tanker trucks had made the journey Sunday. As many as 90 trucks are needed to ship the two million to three million liters, or about 500,000 to 750,000 gallons, of gasoline the refinery sends to Baghdad each day, he said. Whether the Bayji refinery can ship its full allotment to Baghdad "depends on the security situation in the north," he said.
At the same time it remained unclear how long the other major factors causing Baghdad's fuel crisis would go unresolved. Demand for gasoline in the capital has soared by two million liters a day - to about nine million liters - because of severe shortages of electricity, Bahr al-Uloum said. The added demand comes from residents and business owners loading up on gasoline at filling stations and using the fuel to power small electricity generators.
In addition, the Dora refinery in Baghdad, the other major source of gasoline for the capital, is operating at just 30 percent of its normal capacity of up to two million liters of gasoline per day after insurgents sabotaged a pipeline bringing oil to the facility, Bahr Al-Uloum said. He said he was hopeful the problem could be fixed early this month.
After gasoline from Bayji and Dora, the remaining supply for Baghdad typically comes from imports and other refineries, he said.
The outgoing oil minister had steadfastly criticized sharp increases in the price of gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel and liquefied cooking gas that the Jaafari administration imposed in December as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to cancel up to 80 percent of $120 billion in Iraqi debt held by certain creditor nations.
Bahr al-Uloum announced his formal resignation Monday, days after Jaafari, angered by the criticism of the price increases, ordered him to step down for 30 days.
For years Iraq sold its citizens gasoline and other petroleum products at a fraction of their true cost. Bahr al-Uloum has said that prices must be increased somewhat. But he reiterated on Monday his view that the agreement with the monetary fund was draconian and moved much too quickly to reduce Iraq's gasoline subsidies.
"We have to have a balance between the Iraqi people and the requirements of the IMF," Bahr al-Uloum said. "We know there is a problem with the price scheme, but the only way to do it is to go gradually. Otherwise we are not doing any good for the country." |
