Reconstruction of Iraq's oil industry has progressed recently despite continuing security problems, government and industry officials reported at American Petroleum Institute's annual meeting in New Orleans last week.
Since mid-September, production of crude oil has reached 2 million b/d, and exports have exceeded 1 million b/d, said Gary L. Vogler, deputy senior oil advisor of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad.
Vogler also said Iraq's three main refineries at Basra 140,000 b/d, Daura 100,000 b/d, and Baiji 290,000 b/d have resumed nearly full operations. An immediate goal is to restart several 10,000 b/d refineries the Iraqis call "package units" at locations throughout the country.
Another effort is under way to restore operations of parallel product lines along the Strategic Pipeline corridor between a junction west of Baghdad and terminals on the Persian Gulf to accommodate imports of LPG, kerosine, and diesel fuel.
Thomas A. Crum, COO of KBR's Middle East Region said looting and sabotage have added $7-12 million/day to reconstruction costs.
He said Iraqi rehabilitation has reached the end of an initial phase concentrating on averting a humanitarian crisis. The next step is a transition to self-sufficiency, which might last 16 months.
One of KBR's current projects is to import and deliver 875 million l. of gasoline, 35 million l. of diesel, and 20 million tonnes of LPG from Kuwait and Turkey.
Acknowledging recent criticism voiced in Congress of fees paid Halliburton Co. unit KBR for imported gasoline, Crum noted the extraordinary hazards of transporting oil in Iraq and said, "The cost that we pass on is actual cost with a very small margin."
