(12 - 18 October 2002)
With an unprecedented average of 3.03 million barrels per
day, Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme reached
a total of 21.2 million barrels in the week ending 18 October. Completed in 13
shipments, seven from Mina-al-Bakr with 13.5 million barrels and six from
Ceyhan with 7.7 million barrels, the week’s exports tripled in volume, since
the beginning of phase XII on 30 May, a period within which daily exports have
fluctuated around 1 million barrels. Priced at an average of approximately
€26.35
(euros) or $25.80 per barrel, the oil sales yielded an estimated revenue of
€559 million or $547 million.
Since the beginning of current phase XII of the programme,
which ends on 25 November 2002, total exports of Iraqi crude have amounted to
154.4 million barrels of oil out of 468 million barrels approved by the United
Nations oil overseers under 188 oil purchase contracts,
including three new contracts approved in the past week. The estimated revenue
generated so far in this phase is €3.9 billion or $3.8 billion. Iraq would
need to export about $7 billion worth of oil during the current phase in order
to meet its humanitarian programme budget of over $5 billion.
Iraq has exported some 3.2 billion barrels of oil at an
estimated $38.6 billion and €21.5 ($ 19.4 billion) in revenue since the
beginning of the programme on 10 December 1996. With 72 per cent of the oil
proceeds allocated to the humanitarian programme, some $38.5 billion worth of
contracts have been approved by the Security Council’s 661 sanctions
committee and the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP), for the purchase of
various humanitarian supplies and equipment, including about $3.5 billion
worth of oil industry spare parts and equipment. So far, about $25.3 billion
worth of supplies and equipment have been delivered to Iraq, including $1.5
billion worth oil spare parts and equipment, while another $9.6 billion worth
of supplies and equipment, for which funds have been set aside, are in the
production and delivery pipeline, including $1.8 billion worth of oil industry
equipment.
A cumulative revenue shortfall from earlier phases of the
programme has left 1,528 approved humanitarian supply contracts, worth about
$2.84 billion, without available funds. The sectors affected by the revenue
shortfall are: agriculture with $538 million; food handling with $506 million;
electricity with $416 million; health with $316 million; housing with $302
million; water and sanitation with $284 million; telecommunications and
transportation with $235 million; education with $229 million and; food with
$19 million.
Out of a total of 2,889 contracts for humanitarian supplies
worth over $5.5 billion processed by the United Nations Secretariat under the
new set of procedures of Security Council resolution 1409 (2002), based on the
Goods Review List (GRL), 1,652 contracts worth about $2.12 billion (38.5 per
cent) have been approved by OIP after having been assessed by the United
Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as not containing any GRL items,
including a number of contracts previously placed on hold by the 661
Committee. UNMOVIC/IAEA have categorized 1,146 contracts worth $3.2 billion
(58.3 per cent) as “GRL non-compliant”, requiring additional technical
information from suppliers to enable final assessment. So far, 93 contracts
worth $204.7 million (3.7 per cent) have been found to contain GRL items, of
which two were approved following submission of an amendment deleting GRL
items, while nine contracts have been approved and three rejected by the
Committee. Two GRL-contracts have lapsed in the absence of a petition from the
supplier to the Committee. The remainder are at various stages of action
either by the suppliers or the Committee.
Under paragraph 18 of the new set of procedures, some $943
million worth of contracts previously on hold by the 661 Committee, have now
been re-assessed as not to contain GRL items and, therefore, approved by OIP,
while UNMOVIC/IAEA have requested additional information from suppliers on
$2.97 billion worth of contracts previously on hold. GRL items have been found
in 71 contracts previously on hold worth $167.6 million. There remain 133
contracts on hold worth about $714 million, of which 92 contracts valued at
$635 million are for humanitarian supplies and 41 contracts worth about $79
million are for oil industry equipment.
