Oil-rich Iraq forced to import fuel to beat shortages

IRAQ, a country with some of the largest oil deposits in the world, will have to import petrol to solve a fuel shortage.

The Iraqi oil minister announced yesterday the government will spend 420 million to import oil products over the rest of the year.

Iraq is suffering from an acute shortage of petrol, paraffin and cooking gas.

In the capital, cars often queue at filling stations overnight to get what little fuel is available.

The shortage means that people suffer hours-long power cuts during the day, spoiling food in refrigerators and making it difficult to sleep without air conditioning in the summer.

The 420 million "will help resolve the fuel shortage and will improve our strategic assets of oil products", Hussein al-Shahristani, the oil minister said.

Assem Jihad, a spokesman for the oil ministry, said that the country is importing oil products from Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait.

Iraq's three main oil refineries - Doura, Beiji and Shuaiba - are working at half capacity, processing a total of only 350,000 barrels a day, compared to about 700,000 barrels a day before the US-led invasion in March 2003, Mr Jihad said.

The country's oil industry, already suffering during Saddam Hussein's regime from a lack of capital, has fallen even further behind since then.

Parts of the oil infrastructure, such as pipelines, have often been shot at or blown up by insurgents.

What little fuel is available for ordinary Iraqis is often very expensive. In August, a litre of petrol was selling on the black market in Baghdad for 68p, while the official price was 9p.

The price of a cylinder of cooking gas on the black market was 9.50 while its official price was only a few pence.