American and British forces entered Basra and Khor al-Amya’, the two Iraqi oil export sea ports to world markets, hours after Basra ports director Salah Khudhayr accused agencies and Shi'ite religious authorities that he did not name of controlling the ports’ work, a reference to smuggling. He attributed the delay in the rehabilitation of Iraqi ports to the involvement of religious authorities in the smuggling business.
On a related matter a London report said that British forces are protecting the two oil installations in Khor al-Amya’ and Basra in southern Iraq, which produce 9% of the country’s GDP. The two installations pump about 2 million barrels of crude oil per day for the giant tankers, considered targets for terrorists seeking to obstruct the political process in Iraq, the report added.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s oil exports from southern Iraq amounted to about 1.4 million barrels/day and are currently stable after a militia sabotaging the pipeline running from the Bazrgan oil field to Basra port caused exports to temporarily decline to 100,000 barrels/day, crew agents said.
Spurce: al-Zaman, Iraq, April 2, 2008
