Baghdad earns $84 million under UN humanitarian 'oil-for-food' scheme

The Government of Iraq last week sold 3.7 million barrels of oil for $84 million under the United Nations oil-for-food programme, which allows Baghdad to use a portion of its crude revenues for relief aid, the Office running the effort announced today.

The UN attributed this relatively low export level to bad weather conditions at one of the loading platforms and uncertainties surrounding the renewal of the oil-for-food programme earlier this month. Those uncertainties were since resolved on 4 December when the Security Council extended the programme through 3 June 2003.

Under a new system that speeds the approval of humanitarian contracts for Iraq, the Office of the Iraq Programme has approved 2,972 contracts worth about $4 billion after assessment by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that they do not contain "dual-use" items named on the "Goods Review List."

An additional 1,176 contracts worth about $3.7 billion were found to be non-compliant with the List. UNMOVIC and the IAEA will require additional technical information from suppliers to enable final assessments on those items.