Baghdad, Mar 07: Iraq will not set fire to its own oil wells in case of a US-led war against the country, an oil ministry official said today, while warning that world oil prices could reach "astronomical" highs in a conflict. "It is inconceivable for Iraq to torch and harm its (oil) wealth that it is defending," said Hussein Suleiman Al-Hadithi, the oil ministry undersecretary. The US defence department announced yesterday it has contingency plans to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq if President Saddam Hussein sets them ablaze as he did in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. Hadithi also said a war on Iraq would shoot to "at least between 50 dollars and 70 dollars (a barrel), but estimates show prices can reach 90 dollars."
"If an aggression takes place and companies producing rude oil are hit, this will lead to world production losses of about two million barrels per day," he told reporters.
"It will surely shake the world economy and oil distribution in the world, and will shoot oil prices in the world to astronomical figures," he said at the Dora refinery south of Baghdad. Oil prices ticked higher in early trading in London today as war worries heightened after US President George W. Bush warned that the Iraq crisis was in the final stages of diplomacy.
Bureau Report