Iraq crude export target will not be met until Q2 2005:consultant
Baghdad (Platts)--13Sep2004
Iraq will not meet its end-of-year export goal of 3-mil b/d of crude oil because of the "plague" of regular sabotage to pipelines around the country, a senior US oil consultant in the country now estimates. The target has been pushed back to the second quarter of 2005, Norm Szydlowski, a consultant to Iraq's ministry of oil, told Platts on Sunday. The 3-mil b/d target was set soon after US-led troops toppled the former government in May 2003. Exports in the south currently run at about 1.75-mil b/d, while exports from the Turkish port of Ceyhan are sporadic, and have occurred only after tenders for the oil. "I don't think we'll make it now with all of the sabotage," Szydlowski said. Oil exports have been halted at least twice in recent months because of explosions on various pipeline segments. "Sabotage is a plague, there is no question about it," Szydlowski said.
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