IRAQ: THAMIR AL-GHADHBAN IS APPOINTED AS THE OIL MINISTER IN THE NEW INTERIM GOVERNMENT.

Record ID: 344867

  • Title: IRAQ: THAMIR AL-GHADHBAN IS APPOINTED AS THE OIL MINISTER IN THE NEW INTERIM GOVERNMENT.
  • Date: 1st June 2004
  • Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF MINISTRY OF OIL. / CU MINISTRY OF OIL SIGN. (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERVIEW WITH THAMIR AL-GHADBAN. 0.52 3. VARIOUS: OF ATTACKS ON IRAQ OIL PIPELINES, EXPLOSIONS. 1.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA9REUIJYROOAFBXHUEVS7HGUZ1
  • Story Text: Thamir al-Ghadban has been appointed as Oil Minister
    in the Iraq's interim government.



    Iraqi technocrat Thamir Ghadhban has been appointed
    oil minister in a new government due to formally take over
    sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupation authority on June
    30, oil ministry sources said on Tuesday (June 1).

    Ghadhban, Washington's favoured candidate, has long
    experience in the Iraqi oil industry.

    The experienced former head of planning at Iraq's oil
    ministry became "chief executive" of the ministry after a
    U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

    He took on the challenge of raising spirits in an oil
    industry that survived years of crippling United Nations
    sanctions but continues to face uncertainty over crude
    production vital to reviving Iraq's ravaged economy.

    Ghadhban lost his position when Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum,
    from Iraq's Shi'ite majority, became oil minister in what
    industry insiders say was a move that reflected party politics.

    "They wanted to cater to the parties. He is a very
    capable technocrat who knows the Iraqi oil industry. He
    started as a reservoir engineer and was eventually moved to
    the ministry," said Fadhil Othman, an Iraqi exile with 20
    years' experience in the top ranks of Iraq's State Oil
    Marketing Organisation.

    If he accepts any nomination, Ghadhban will use his
    technical skills in a bid to boost output in a country with
    the world's second largest reserves after Saudi Arabia.

    But Iraq's energy fortunes are not entirely in the
    hands of a man whom Iraqi officials say the Americans have
    wanted in the post of minister since the fall of Baghdad.

    Insurgents whose bombs have killed everyone from
    American troops to foreign workers also vent their fury in
    attacks on oil pipelines which are hard to protect in
    Iraq's vast desert.

    Iraq had a sustained production capacity of about three
    million barrels per day before Saddam's fall.

    Insurgent attacks on oil facilities and lack of funding
    have already derailed plans to raise exports to two million
    barrels per day by March. They are now 1.8 million bpd at most.

    Saboteurs recently struck a southern pipeline to Basra
    just two weeks after U.S.-led forces foiled suicide boat
    attacks on tankers there, casting further doubt on Iraq's
    ability to sustain crude supplies to world markets.


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