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UN advises oil lifters against paying Iraq fee
REUTERS
Dubai, Dec 20 : The United Nations (UN) has sent a telex notification to Iraq's crude oil customers warning them not to honour Baghdad's demand, for a surcharge payment direct into an Iraq bank account, industry sources said.Following consultations with the United Nations Iraq Sanctions Committee, the UN oil overseers have advised lifters of the following:1) The Sanctions Committee has not approved a surcharge of any kind on Iraqi oil;
2) Payments for the purchase of Iraqi crude oil can not be made to a non-UN account;
3) Therefore buyers of Iraqi oil shall not pay any kind of surcharge to Iraq.Iraq suspended oil sales for 12 days from December 1 after crude oil customers under the United Nations oil-for-food deal, an exception to Gulf War sanctions, declined to meet Baghdad's request for a 40-cent per barrel surcharge. Baghdad's demand for the fee was seen as an effort to wrest back some control from the UN over oil revenues after the 10-year embargo imposed for its invasion of Kuwait. Iraq appears to have waived the fee for those customers now lifting crude oil, industry sources said. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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