7 August -- With the price of oil well above average, Iraq earned $353 million dollars last week, according to the latest figures released by the United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme, which administers the UN humanitarian "oil-for-food" programme.
Under the Security Council resolution establishing the oil-for-food programme, 66 per cent of earnings goes to fund the country's humanitarian needs and 30 per cent is directed to the Compensation Commission which pays claims arising from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The remainder goes to pay the costs of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and UN operational costs.
Since the beginning of the latest phase of the oil-for-food programme, Iraq has exported 106.8 million barrels. The oil is sold at market value, which is up to an average of $23.97 per barrel. This figure is high in comparison to the first phase of the programme, which began in December, 1996 with the price of oil at $17.92 per barrel, according to new statistics released by the Office of the Iraq Programme.
That Office also reported today that over the past week the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions against Iraq, known as the "661 Committee," approved seven new contracts for the export of Iraqi oil, bringing the total number of approved contracts to 92 for a volume of 368.38 million barrels.
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