All-night queues as Baghdad runs out of petrol ($4 billion smuggled out)

[Barrett808]

All-night queues as Baghdad runs out of petrol
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 18/08/2006)

Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world but yesterday drivers were forming mile-long queues outside petrol stations, knowing that they would spend the night in their cars before they could fill up.

Only six weeks ago, Baghdad's streets were jammed with traffic. Now they are nearly empty because pumps have all but run dry.

The official explanation is attacks on infrastructure. A pipeline from the northern oilfields around Kirkuk was targeted last month while the Beiji power station, one of the country's largest, was partially closed after workers fled following death threats.

advertisementBut drivers queueing outside the Muthana petrol station in central Baghdad suggested that the real reason was crooked officials in the oil ministry. They accused officials of selling fuel to criminal gangs who sell it abroad at a huge profit.

The shortage could have more far-reaching consequences than creating misery for Baghdad's car owners. It is the latest sign that the economy may be on the brink of collapse. Inflation is running at 50 per cent, corruption is rife and, most importantly, the end of next month will bring to a close the American-funded reconstruction programme, even though electricity in Baghdad remains on for one hour in three at best.

(more)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/18/wirq18.xml

[eleny]

1. That's like me in Colorado if I had to queue up for a glimpse of sunshine

It's obscenely unjust.

[Botany]

2. bush could screw up a wet dream

* the 2nd biggest oil reserves in the world and no gas?

* Turkey & Iran are attacking the Kurds

Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases.

Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory.

Some displaced families have pitched tents in the valleys behind Qandil Mountain, which straddles Iraq's rugged borders with Turkey and Iran.

They told the Guardian yesterday that at least six villages had been abandoned and one person had died following a sustained artillery barrage by Iranian forces that appeared designed to flush out guerrillas linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who have hideouts in Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1852843,00.html

* A car bombing in the Sadr City district of Baghdad killed at least seven people and wounded more than 20 on Thursday morning, the authorities said.

The blast was the latest of several recent attacks in the district, a densely populated area controlled by the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr. It signaled that full-scale sectarian fighting was continuing in the capital despite the extra American troops deployed there.

Also on Thursday, the Iraqi government introduced a $39 billion draft budget for 2007 that a spokesman said would require significant borrowing unless daily oil production more than doubled.

Few details of the draft were available. Ali al-Dabagh, the government spokesman, said in an interview that it was being scrutinized by the cabinet and that most of the proposed $39 billion would pay for employees’ salaries and pensions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18ir...

and I go on all night .....

[brokensymmetry]

3. Is it planned? Maybe.

What better way to injure an insurgency than to
eliminate their mobility. Take away the gas, and
you stop that mobility.

Of course, many others suffer - but that's never
been a problem for the BFEE>

[NEOBuckeye]

4. There are many other ways to fight.

I seriously doubt that the insurgency will be crippled in the least.

[acmavm]

6. No gas, no car bombs. It would look rather obvious pushing one up

to a checkpoint.

[Rageneau]

5. I betcha the BFEE is getting a cut of this action.

[CanonRay]

7. Bush Spin: This is good news!

If they can't drive their cars, they can't do car bombs, so the violence will go down, so they can pump more oil, and have gas. God help me, I'm learning to think like them. Arrrrrgh.

[gasperc]

8. wait, there was an economy??

I was surprised to learn that there was some semblance of a functioning economy

[gratuitous]

9. Oil going for $70 a barrel

And Iraq runs dry? Gosh, you think maybe somebody's stealing it?

Well, that's a premature conclusion. After all, nobody knows how much oil is being pumped in Iraq, so how would anyone know if it was stolen? And there are no records of who's shipping the oil, who's paying for it (if they're paying for it) or where it's being shipped to.

But we are paying over $3 a gallon for gasoline. The conclusion seems unavoidable, particularly with the kleptocracy currently in place in Washington.

[leesa]

10. 4 billion? Check Cheney's pockets.