During the week Iraq did not resume its oil exports under
the United Nations oil-for-food programme, suspended since 4 June 2001.
On 9 July 2001, through an exchange of letters between the
Secretariat of the United Nations and the Government of Iraq, the Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) of 20 May 1996 on the implementation of Security
Council resolution 986 (1995) was extended for the duration of phase X.
Phase X of the programme came into effect on 4 July 2001 and runs
through 30 November 2001, under Security Council resolution 1360 (2001).
In
the course of the week, the oil overseers approved one new oil purchase
contract for two million barrels of Kirkuk crude.
Currently, there are 178 approved oil contracts amounting to 580
million barrels of oil, 356
million of which are for Basrah Light and 224 million for Kirkuk.
Since the beginning of the
programme on 10 December 1996, Iraq has exported about 2.5 billion barrels of
oil for an estimated revenue of $38.6 billion and €6.67 billion (or
$5.6 billion at current prices and rate of exchange).
The United States dollar was replaced with the euro for the Iraqi oil
purchases in early November 2000, at the request of the Government of Iraq and
with the authorization of the 661 committee.
With the adoption of Security
Council resolution 1330 (2000) on 5 December 2000, 72 per cent of the oil
revenue funds the humanitarian programme in Iraq, 59 per cent of which is for
the 15 central and southern governorates and 13 per cent for the three
northern governorates of Iraq.
During the week, the 661 committee released from hold five
contracts worth $7.56 million, while placing on hold 50 new contracts valued
at $93.3 million. The total value
of “holds” now stands at over $3.4 billion.
In all, 1,373 contracts were on hold, 924 of which worth almost $3
billion were for humanitarian supplies and 449 contracts worth $431 million
for oil industry spare parts and equipment.
Since the start of the programme, the 661 Committee has
approved 11,705 contracts worth $18.2 billion for humanitarian supplies for
Iraq, while OIP has processed another 2,361 contracts under “fast-track”
procedures worth $5.77 billion, based on pre-approved lists of supplies.
In addition, the Committee has approved 2,653 contracts worth $1.47
billion for the purchase of oil industry spare parts and equipment, with OIP
having “fast-tracked” another 367 contracts worth $360 million in this
category of goods. “Fast-tracking”
began in March 2000.
As at 6 July 2001, $13.4 billion worth of humanitarian
supplies and $778 million worth of oil industry spare parts and equipment had
been delivered to Iraq since the start of the programme.
Another $11 billion worth of supplies, including $1 billion worth of
oil spare parts and equipment, were in the production and delivery pipeline.
