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Iraq misplaces billions in oil, U.S. study finds |
| Home | (IHT) - From 100,000 to 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft U.S. government report. Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily. Over four years, that comes to $7 billion to $22 billion. The report does not offer a conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry. |