- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States plans to run Iraq's oil industry until an Iraqi interim authority
can be formed to take it over, sources familiar with the evolving plan
said on Friday.
-
- It is uncertain how long the United States would operate
Iraq's oil industry, the country's main source of revenue. U.S. officials
say they want to turn over Iraqi ministries to Iraqis as quickly as possible.
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- "The whole purpose is to transition all these ministries
to the Iraqi Interim Authority as quickly as possible. The oil ministry
is one of them," said one official.
-
- The U.N. oil-for-food program is continuing under a new
U.N. resolution, using oil revenues to pay for humanitarian assistance
for the Iraqi people.
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- The Defense Department is considering putting in place
an advisory board of former U.S. oil industry executives to help run Iraq's
oil industry, the head of which is likely to be Philip Carroll, a former
chief executive of Shell Oil Co., sources said.
-
- Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that Iraq's
oil production could rise as much as 50 percent from 2002 levels by the
end of the year if the country is given outside help in restoring its fields'
capacity to pump crude.
-
- Last year, Iraq was producing about 2 million barrels
of oil per day, down from a high of about 3 million barrels in 1988, according
to the U.S. Energy Department.
-
- Even though the country will need outside help, Cheney
said Iraqis will have to "make decisions on how much they want to
reinvest" in their oil sector.
-
- The country controls more than 112 billion barrels of
oil, second only to Saudi Arabia in proven reserves.
-
- Sketching out a postwar scenario now that Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein appears to have lost power, Cheney, a former oil company
executive, spoke of "an organization to oversee the functioning of
their oil ministry."
-
- That body, he said, "will be composed primarily
of Iraqis. It may have international advisers from outside."
-
- Does the United States want Iraq to remain in OPEC?
-
- "It will be up to their government to decide. Our
position is we have no position. It's up to the Iraqi people," said
one U.S. official.
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