Sunday, August 13, 2006
News RhetIraq: Fuel Shortage in Iraq
Source: Associated Press via myway
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraqi Has Worst Fuel Shortage Since '03"
Under a scorching sun, Baghdad taxi driver Sameer Abdul Razzaq wraps a wet towel around his head and waits for gasoline in a line stretching a mile. "I've been here since 6 a.m.," he said Sunday. "If I'm lucky, I'll get to the end of the line by sunset. I actually think I might end up spending the night here."
This is the capital of what should be one of the world's great oil producers, but corruption and insurgent attacks have Iraqis mired in their worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein was ousted, with black market gasoline costing as much as $4 a gallon.
The official price is $1 a gallon, but the fuel is often unavailable, forcing most Iraqi drivers to shell out the higher price to streetside vendors or wait in long lines at gas stations.
The shortage affects other petroleum products too. A cylinder of cooking gas costs about $18 on the black market - double the price a few months ago.
The irony is especially bitter in a country that sits atop the world's third-largest proven petroleum reserves. Iraq's estimated 115 billion barrels are exceeded in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries only by Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Iraq has been plagued by periodic fuel shortages since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But the current crisis comes amid higher demand for fuel to power generators and air-condition homes and offices, with summer temperatures topping 115 degrees.
The shortage is so bad that even a gas station inside the Green Zone, home of major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy, ran out of fuel Sunday afternoon.
The government blames the problem on insurgent attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure, which snarl the distribution system.
"I realize that people are really suffering from the lack of energy and electricity," President Jalal Talabani said Sunday. "But this is not the fault of the government ... terrorists have blown up many power stations as well as the pipeline" that delivers crude oil from the northern fields around Kirkuk to the main refinery in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
The Beiji facility had a prewar capacity to refine 2 million to 2.25 million gallons of gasoline a day. It is now producing less than 260,000 gallons of gasoline a day, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said, citing electricity shortages and threats to refinery operators as the main sources of the problem.
Last week, the main oil storage facility in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, had to shut down after workers received death threats.
As of May, production stood at about 1.9 million barrels a day, U.S. officials said.
"The ministers are busy with one thing only, and that is touring the world as we wallow here in the Middle Ages," said lawyer Ahmed Mohammed Ali, 55. "Everyday I take a container to the gas station to get some fuel to run my generator. It takes me up to five hours and sometimes all I get is humiliation by the security personnel in charge of the station."
Last month, Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani predicted that Iraq's oil production would double over the next four years to 4 million barrels a day - a forecast that some petroleum experts thought was overly optimistic.
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraqi Has Worst Fuel Shortage Since '03"
Under a scorching sun, Baghdad taxi driver Sameer Abdul Razzaq wraps a wet towel around his head and waits for gasoline in a line stretching a mile. "I've been here since 6 a.m.," he said Sunday. "If I'm lucky, I'll get to the end of the line by sunset. I actually think I might end up spending the night here."
This is the capital of what should be one of the world's great oil producers, but corruption and insurgent attacks have Iraqis mired in their worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein was ousted, with black market gasoline costing as much as $4 a gallon.
The official price is $1 a gallon, but the fuel is often unavailable, forcing most Iraqi drivers to shell out the higher price to streetside vendors or wait in long lines at gas stations.
The shortage affects other petroleum products too. A cylinder of cooking gas costs about $18 on the black market - double the price a few months ago.
The irony is especially bitter in a country that sits atop the world's third-largest proven petroleum reserves. Iraq's estimated 115 billion barrels are exceeded in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries only by Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Iraq has been plagued by periodic fuel shortages since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But the current crisis comes amid higher demand for fuel to power generators and air-condition homes and offices, with summer temperatures topping 115 degrees.
The shortage is so bad that even a gas station inside the Green Zone, home of major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy, ran out of fuel Sunday afternoon.
The government blames the problem on insurgent attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure, which snarl the distribution system.
"I realize that people are really suffering from the lack of energy and electricity," President Jalal Talabani said Sunday. "But this is not the fault of the government ... terrorists have blown up many power stations as well as the pipeline" that delivers crude oil from the northern fields around Kirkuk to the main refinery in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
The Beiji facility had a prewar capacity to refine 2 million to 2.25 million gallons of gasoline a day. It is now producing less than 260,000 gallons of gasoline a day, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said, citing electricity shortages and threats to refinery operators as the main sources of the problem.
Last week, the main oil storage facility in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, had to shut down after workers received death threats.
As of May, production stood at about 1.9 million barrels a day, U.S. officials said.
"The ministers are busy with one thing only, and that is touring the world as we wallow here in the Middle Ages," said lawyer Ahmed Mohammed Ali, 55. "Everyday I take a container to the gas station to get some fuel to run my generator. It takes me up to five hours and sometimes all I get is humiliation by the security personnel in charge of the station."
Last month, Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani predicted that Iraq's oil production would double over the next four years to 4 million barrels a day - a forecast that some petroleum experts thought was overly optimistic.
