DATE=3/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ/OIL (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260602
BYLINE=LISA BRYANT
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Iraqi Oil Ministry officials announced 
Saturday they would boost the country's oil production 
by about 700-thousand barrels a day.  Lisa Bryant 
reports from Cairo the government's decision comes 
ahead of a critical meeting of the Organization of 
Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.

TEXT:  Baghdad's decision to increase its production 
will likely be up for discussion Monday when OPEC 
members meet in Vienna to consider increasing oil 
output.

Washington has lobbied hard for the production boost, 
after watching oil prices bounce to 34 dollars a 
barrel, a nine-year high.  Energy Secretary Bill 
Richardson personally delivered the call for more oil 
during a recent tour of OPEC countries.

How oil producers will respond at the Vienna meeting 
is unclear.  OPEC nations have yet to forge a unified 
stance on increasing their production.

What is clear is that Iraq's announced production 
increase will provide new revenue to Baghdad's 
strapped economy.  Although a United Nations sanctions 
adjustment now allows Iraq to pump as much oil as it 
wants, the government has actually slashed production 
by hundreds of thousands of barrels a day.

Iraqi officials said the recent cuts were needed to 
preserve its oil infrastructure, which it says is 
missing key spare parts.  Like other goods entering 
Iraq, the oil industry parts are subject to U-N 
sanctions.

Faced with mounting criticism over the number of 
contracts it has frozen, Washington announced on 
Friday it would propose doubling the amount of spare 
parts that Iraq can purchase.  U-S officials also said 
they would allow Baghdad to buy a million more dollars 
worth of supplies.

Iraq has lived under U-N sanctions since invading 
Kuwait almost a decade ago.  Baghdad has blamed the 
sanctions for killing and causing the suffering of 
thousands of Iraqis.

But the United States and Britain, in particular, say 
the Baghdad government is to blame for failing to 
properly distribute humanitarian aid under the U-N 
oil-for-food program.  Earlier this year, however, two 
senior U-N humanitarian officials in Baghdad resigned 
after criticizing the oil-for-food program.

On Friday, U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the 
organization would lose a propaganda war with Baghdad 
if the oil-for-food program wasn't made more 
effective.  Meanwhile, U-N arms inspectors have not 
returned to Iraq since leaving more than a year ago. 
(Signed)

NEB/LB/ALW/JP




25-Mar-2000 11:21 AM EDT (25-Mar-2000 1621 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.