(9 - 15 November 2002)
Averaging just under 1.2 million barrels per day, Iraqi oil
exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme rose slightly to 8.3
million barrels in the week ending 15 November, from the previous week’s
total of 7.3 million barrels. Completed in seven shipments - two from Mina-al-Bakr
terminal with 3.9 million barrels and five from Ceyhan with 4.4 million
barrels, the week’s exports yielded an estimated
revenue
of €168 million (euros) or $169 million, at current prices and rate of
exchange. The average price of Iraqi crude oil was approximately
€19.95 or $20.10 per barrel.
Buyers of Iraqi crude oil have lifted 194.4 million barrels
of oil out of 489 million barrels approved by the United Nations oil overseers
under 201 oil purchase contracts in the current phase XII of the programme,
including five new contracts approved in the past week. The estimated revenue
generated so far in this phase is €4.64 billion or $4.66 billion. Phase XII
ends on 25 November 2002.
With 72 per cent of the total oil revenue being allocated to
the humanitarian programme, as required under Security Council resolution 1330
(2000), Iraq would need to export about $7 billion worth of oil during the
current phase in order to meet its budgetary target of over $5 billion for the
programme.
Since the beginning of “oil-for-food” on 10 December
1996, Iraq has exported some 3.22 billion barrels of oil, at an estimated
value of $38.6 billion and €22.2 billion ($20 billion). Some $39.6 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 $3.6
billion worth of oil industry spare parts and equipment. So far, about $25.2
billion worth of supplies and equipment have been delivered to Iraq, including
$1.5 billion worth of oil spare parts and equipment, while another $10.4
billion worth of supplies and equipment, for which funds have been available,
are in the production and delivery pipeline, including $1.8 billion worth of
oil industry equipment.
Owing to a revenue shortfall from previous phases of the
programme, currently 1,607 approved humanitarian supply contracts, worth about
$2.96 billion, are left without available funds. The sectors affected by the
revenue shortfall are: agriculture with $550 million; food handling with $515
million; electricity with $385 million; health with $341 million; water and
sanitation with $325 million; housing with $323 million; education with $279
million; and telecommunications and transportation with $248 million.
Out of a total of 3,654 contracts for humanitarian supplies
worth over $6.9 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), 2,365 contracts worth about $3.06 billion (44.2 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.
The approvals include 845 contracts worth over $1.2 billion
that had been previously on hold by the 661 Committee and re-circulated and
reviewed by UNMOVIC/IAEA under paragraph 18 of the procedures of resolution
1409 (2002).
UNMOVIC/IAEA have categorized 1,156 contracts worth $3.45
billion (49.7 per cent) as “GRL non-compliant”, requiring additional
technical information from suppliers to enable final assessment.
So far, 137 contracts worth about $450 million were found by
UNMOVIC/IAEA to contain GRL items, of which 13 contracts worth $3.85 million
were approved and 30 contracts worth $59 million rejected by the Committee.
The remaining GRL-contracts were at various stages of action.
