Iraq oil chief plans rapid build-up

Iraqi oil is coming back onstream

Iraq could be pumping 1.5 million barrels of oil a day within three weeks, according to the man appointed by the US to head the country's oil industry.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Thamir Abbas Ghadhban - director of planning at the oil ministry before the war - said the rapid build-up from the current 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) was needed to supply Iraq's own needs, not for exports.

The 1.5 million bpd target, he said, "is the rate required to supply enough liquefied petroleum gas and enough gas for power and some of the industrial plants".

Exports will have to wait till the legal question of who is empowered to sign contracts on behalf of Iraq can be settled, he said.

Iraq was pumping 2.5 million bpd before the war.

New faces

Mr Ghadhban's appointment over the weekend was accompanied by the creation of an advisory board, to be headed by US oil expert Phillip Carroll.

Mr Ghadhban himself was Director General of Planning and Studies at the oil ministry under President Saddam Hussein.

He refused to comment on policy issues - including the thorny problem of existing contracts with predominantly French, Russian and Chinese oil groups.

French and Russian contracts are thought to be particularly at risk, given veiled threats from the US following their outright opposition to the US-led attack on Iraq.

In any case, the export question was less important than keeping the need to bring in supplies from neighbouring countries to a minimum, Mr Ghadhban told Reuters.

"In terms of physically can we establish exports, there is no problem with that," he said, since most pumping stations and pipelines were largely intact.

But while the need for export earnings was pressing, the priority was to serve domestic needs, where a shortage has had people queuing at petrol stations for hours on end.