A combination of pipeline sabotage and costly fuel imports has drained roughly seven billion dollars from Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, Oil Minister Thamer Ghadban said on 21 October 2004. Insufficient refining capacity was forcing the country to spend 200 million dollars a month on imported petroleum products.
Output averaged 2.8 million barrels per day, split between 2.1 million from southern fields and about 700,000 from the north. The government was targeting exports of 1.8 million bpd and aimed to reach three million bpd in total production by 2005, provided security conditions improved.
Domestic refineries could process at most 14 million litres a day, falling to nine million during power cuts and attacks. Demand had climbed to 20 million litres a day after an estimated 700,000 vehicles entered Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. Rampant smuggling of subsidized fuel to neighboring countries deepened the shortfall.
The northern pipeline connecting Kirkuk to the Türkiye Mediterranean port of Ceyhan has been a persistent target; attacks on that line and on a feeder to the Baiji refinery struck on Tuesday. Analysts have estimated that restoring Iraq's oil infrastructure fully would require 50 billion dollars over a decade.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.