Al-Gharibawi: It is truly astonishing that an oil-rich country does not own a single tanker for its exports!
Former member of the parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee, Bassem Al-Gharibawi, raised questions on Monday regarding Iraq’s lack of a maritime fleet for transporting and exporting oil, and the country’s complete dependence on foreign companies.
Al-Gharibawi told Al-Maalouma that “Iran allowed Iraq to export its oil,” but “the lack of oil tankers prevented this,” holding previous governments “responsible for the failure to manage the oil file and the failure to allocate or purchase tankers within a national fleet,” while adding that it is very strange for an oil-producing country not to own a single tanker to export its oil.
He added that “successive governments have not put the country’s interest among their priorities,” noting that “the Hormuz shock and the halt in exports revealed the extent of the shortcomings in preparing for such circumstances, or even in preparing alternative ways to export oil.”
The former MP continued, “Iraq lacks internal and external transport lines, oil transport and storage fleets, as well as a lack of interest in investing in oil outside the country, which reflects chaos in the management of the most important financial resource for the state.”
He pointed out that “Iraqi companies submitted proposals to develop production and raise its capacity in the Basra fields to 6 million barrels per day, but the government did not respond to them, and the reliance on foreign companies controlling the management of the fields remained.”
The recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting halt in oil exports have paralyzed nearly 80 percent of Iraq’s oil exports, a vital artery that provides more than 95 percent of the country’s revenue.
Almaalomah.me