United Nations, January 20: UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said that Iraq's oil production was likely to drop unless the Security Council approved quickly contracts for spare parts and other equipment to upgrade Baghdad's oil industry. "The current conditions of the oil facilities...call for prompt remedial action," he said in a letter to the council."Unless applications for contracts for key items of oil spare parts and equipment are approved expeditiously and are made available and commissioned within a short time frame, the production of oil is likely to drop, even under a regime of `severe risk management,'" he said.
Annan said Iraqi oil exports during the current sixth-month phase of UN oil-for-food programme, which began on December 12, are likely to slip by about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd). Oil exports could be expected to run at 1.95-2 million bpd compared to exports of 2.1646 million bpd Iraq supplied during the previous six-month or 180-day phase.
Iraq has been under UN sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Under a UN oil-for-food programme, Iraq is allowed to sell unlimited quantities of oil to buy food and medicine.
-- (Reuters)
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