Sabotage, bad weather stop Iraq oil exports

reutersalertnet: A sabotage attack in the north and bad weather in the south have stopped Iraq's oil exports through land and sea, oil officials said on Thursday. Loadings at the Basra terminal offshore in the Gulf has been halted since December 25 due to storms and an explosion on Thursday cut pipeline flows to Turkey's Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean, they said. The pipeline, which has been mostly idle since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, only resumed operations last week. The security situation also forced Iraq's biggest refinery at Baiji north of Baghdad to shut down, an Oil Ministry spokesman said.Iraqi oil exports in November fell to 1.21 million barrels per day, their lowest in more than two years as the northern pipeline to Turkey stayed shut and poor weather delayed loadings in the south. Falling oil exports and fuel shortages, especially gasoline, have raised the level of popular frustration with the performance of successive Iraqi governments since Saddam Hussein was removed from power in April 2003. Link


FT: Iraqis look to raise oil output next year
Iraq hopes to boost oil production by 25 per cent in 2006 in line with a government plan that sees rising oil revenue reinvested in the petroleum sector but also requires foreign investment, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday "We hope....we'll be able to bring our production to at least 2.5 million barrels (per day) to 2.6m barrels by the end of 2006" Ali Allawi said. Iraq currently produces around 2m barrels per day. Read more