VOL. XLII

No. 18

3-May-1999

IRAQ

Iraqi Oil Industry Faces Impasse

Three new developments are converging to create a newenvironment for the Iraqi oil industry. These are the US rejection of anyfundamental changes to the UN sanctions regime against Baghdad, Iraqifrustration with the lackluster performance by Russian companies in theupstream sector, and the directional shift in Iraqi oil sales towards tradersand mystery companies instead of international oil firms.

The US, while not making proposals...