DATE=3/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ/OIL (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260602
BYLINE=LISA BRYANT
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Iraqi Oil Ministry officials announced
Saturday they would boost the country's oil production
by about 700-thousand barrels a day. Lisa Bryant
reports from Cairo the government's decision comes
ahead of a critical meeting of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
TEXT: Baghdad's decision to increase its production
will likely be up for discussion Monday when OPEC
members meet in Vienna to consider increasing oil
output.
Washington has lobbied hard for the production boost,
after watching oil prices bounce to 34 dollars a
barrel, a nine-year high. Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson personally delivered the call for more oil
during a recent tour of OPEC countries.
How oil producers will respond at the Vienna meeting
is unclear. OPEC nations have yet to forge a unified
stance on increasing their production.
What is clear is that Iraq's announced production
increase will provide new revenue to Baghdad's
strapped economy. Although a United Nations sanctions
adjustment now allows Iraq to pump as much oil as it
wants, the government has actually slashed production
by hundreds of thousands of barrels a day.
Iraqi officials said the recent cuts were needed to
preserve its oil infrastructure, which it says is
missing key spare parts. Like other goods entering
Iraq, the oil industry parts are subject to U-N
sanctions.
Faced with mounting criticism over the number of
contracts it has frozen, Washington announced on
Friday it would propose doubling the amount of spare
parts that Iraq can purchase. U-S officials also said
they would allow Baghdad to buy a million more dollars
worth of supplies.
Iraq has lived under U-N sanctions since invading
Kuwait almost a decade ago. Baghdad has blamed the
sanctions for killing and causing the suffering of
thousands of Iraqis.
But the United States and Britain, in particular, say
the Baghdad government is to blame for failing to
properly distribute humanitarian aid under the U-N
oil-for-food program. Earlier this year, however, two
senior U-N humanitarian officials in Baghdad resigned
after criticizing the oil-for-food program.
On Friday, U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the
organization would lose a propaganda war with Baghdad
if the oil-for-food program wasn't made more
effective. Meanwhile, U-N arms inspectors have not
returned to Iraq since leaving more than a year ago.
(Signed)
NEB/LB/ALW/JP
25-Mar-2000 11:21 AM EDT (25-Mar-2000 1621 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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