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U.S. and British officials expect revenues from sales of Iraq's oil to help fund its post-war reconstruction.
"Slowly but surely things are coming back on line," Lt. Col. Ed Worley told Reuters at U.S. Central Command war headquarters in Qatar. The oil would eventually be used in power stations to generate electricity for Iraq's southern cities, he said. Worley said electricity was being provided in parts of southern Iraq, but that many areas still had no power. U.S. and British officials expect revenues from sales of Iraq's oil to help fund its post-war reconstruction. Iraq's giant southern oilfields could by mid-May crank out 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), a senior U.S. official said. Col. Michael Morrow, adviser to U.S. forces chief Gen. Tommy Franks at Central Command in Qatar, said Iraq's first barrels from four wells in the South Rumaila oilfield are earmarked for power generation and domestic consumption. "We're pumping much quicker than our six-week target," said Morrow of an earlier forecast to restart production from southern oilfields in six to nine weeks from April 6. "Basically we're on a sliding curve. We had first pumping of 50,000 barrels yesterday and repairs will continue until we hit our target of 800,000 bpd." Morrow told Reuters that the goal could be achieved sooner if an export mechanism is put in place. Iraq's customers are waiting for the creation of a legal framework for selling crude before tankers load. Before the war Iraq was pumping 2.5 million bpd; 1.7 million bpd in the south and 800,000 bpd from the north. "The target could be hit way earlier," he said, adding that initial assessments of Iraq's vital export outlet at Mina al-Bakr showed the Gulf port in good working order. Pumping from Iraq's huge Kirkuk oilfield in the north has yet to resume, but Morrow said production was likely to start up soon since there was only minimal damage to the infrastructure. Output in the north is expected to reach 800,000 bpd in two to six weeks from April 21, he said. Natural gas from the South Jambur gas-oil separation plant two in the north is already feeding power stations in Mosul, Kirkuk, Baiji and Baghdad. Freshly pumped crude oil will head initially to Iraqi refineries. Morrow said the 140,000 bpd Basra refinery is expected to be up and running within a week. Before the plant restarts, repairs on a leaky pipeline between the gas-oil separation plant 3R and the Az-Zubair pump station need to be finished. That should happen in two to three days, with the refinery up shortly after that. Morrow said Iraqi workers were now part of the team helping the project beat the clock. "The Iraqis are back helping," he said. "They know the system and how to get it back up." Some 400 Iraqis went back to work at the South Oil Company, Morrow said, adding that the Iraqi leadership is now working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Task Force To Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO). "We're a joint venture," he said.
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