World
  |
|
Iraq missing up to 15 million dollars of oil daily: report
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 05 14 07Between five million and 15 million dollars worth of oil a day is unaccounted for in Iraq and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Citing a draft US government report it gained access to, the newspaper said the amounts relate to between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraqs declared oil production over the past four years.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, the paper said.
But the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the countrys oil industry, The Times said.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
Iraq and the US State Department have been under relentless pressure to show tangible progress in Iraq by raising production levels, which have languished well below the US goal of three million barrels a day, according to the report.
The draft report, expected to be released within the next week, was prepared by the United States Government Accountability Office with the help of government energy analysts, and was provided to The Times by a separate government office that received a review copy.
AFP 12 1245 GMT 05 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels