Baghdad, July 01: Looters and saboteurs running riot in Iraq have trebled the country’s oil sector repair bill, slowing down efforts to restart exports needed to fund Baghdad’s post-war reconstruction programme. Gary Loew, director of planning for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Restore Iraq Oil, said rampant pillaging of Iraq’s oil network now accounts for more than $800m of infrastructure repair costs, which are already in excess of $1bn.
“We’re estimating that about three quarters of the damages are due to looting,” he said. “So that set us back. But we still have a schedule to get export sales and refining capacity up, and we’re not that far off, maybe three weeks to a month.” Bureau Report