Billions of dollars' worth of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for, possibly having been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, the New York Times said yesterday.
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of Iraq's daily output of roughly 2 million barrels is missing, it said, citing a draft report prepared by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) and government energy analysts that is expected to be released next week.
The discrepancy was valued between US$5 million and US$15 million daily, using a US$50 per barrel average, the report said. That adds up to billions of dollars in the four years since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The newspaper received the draft report from a separate government office that received a review copy. The GAO declined to discuss the draft, the paper said.
The report does not present a conclusion on what happened to the missing barrels, but it provided alternative explanations besides corruption or smuggling, including possible Iraqi overstating of its production.
A State Department official who works on energy matters offered possible explanations, including pipeline sabotage and inaccurate reporting of oil production in southern Iraq.
"It could also be theft," the Times quoted the unnamed official as saying, with suspicion falling on southern Shiite militias.
"Crude oil is not as lucrative in the region as refined products, but we're not ruling that out either," the official said. "There is not an issue of insurgency, per se, but it could be funding Shia factions, and that could very well be true."
"That would be a concern if they were using smuggling money to blow up American soldiers or kill Sunnis or do anything that could harm the unity of the country," the Times quoted the official as saying.
The Times characterized the report as the most comprehensive look thus far at what it called faltering US efforts to rebuild Iraq's oil and electricity sectors.
The GAO tapped experts at the Energy Information Administration within the US Department of Energy for its oil analysis.
Meanwhile, five soldiers were killed yesterday and three reported missing after an attack south of Baghdad, the US military said, amid reports that the three troops had been captured.
"This morning at 4:44am in Iraq, a coalition force team of eight soldiers -- seven Americans and an Iraqi army interpreter -- were attacked 20km west of Mahmudiyah," said spokesman Major General William Caldwell.
"As a result of this attack, five soldiers were killed in action and three are currently missing," he said, without clarifying whether the dead were all US soldiers or whether the Iraqi interpreter was among those killed.
"At the time of the attack, a nearby unit heard explosions and attempted to establish communications, but without success," he said in a statement.
"Coalition forces arrived within an hour, secured the site, and immediately initiated a search. The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending final identification and notification of next of kin," he said.
"Make no mistake -- we will never stop looking for our soldiers until their status is definitively determined, and we continue to pray for their safe return," he added.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS