• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gunmen kidnap senior Iraq oil official in Baghdad

Posted on: Friday, 9 June 2006, 03:50 CDT

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped a senior official of Iraq's oil ministry after he left work in Baghdad on Thursday, police and ministry sources said on Friday, highlighting the lawlessness still afflicting the vital sector.

The incident happened the same day U.S. troops killed Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose demise the Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said would help improve the country's oil production, particularly in the north.

The sources said Muthana al-Badri, Director General of Iraq's State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), was on his way home in the Sunni district of Adhamiya when gunmen in four cars stopped his car and abducted him but set his driver free.

They said the kidnappers have not contacted the ministry or Badri's family.

The kidnapping highlights the challenges and dangers which Iraq's oil sector, hampered by violence and political wrangling, face.

"The death of Zarqawi will lead to the reduction in the level of violence and terrorist attacks and this will definitely help to improve our production, particularly from the northern fields and exports," Shahristani told Reuters in an interview in Istanbul on Thursday.

Badri, who the sources said is in his 60's, has always worked for SCOP. He became head of the company after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Oil Ministry sources described him as a "professional and energetic."

"We call him the son of SCOP because he spent his life there," said an oil industry official.

SCOP is in charge of the oil projects for the ministry such as building new refineries and pipelines.

Iraq, which sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, has been struggling to produce 2 million barrels per day, down from nearly 3 million bpd before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Insurgents in Iraq have repeatedly sabotaged oil facilities in the north to hampered efforts to boost crude oil exports, the main source of government revenue. Exports in May were around 1.5 million bpd, according to shipping sources.

Exports from the north are on hold due to sabotage which has so devastated infrastructure there that oil exports from the giant Kirkuk field are unlikely to resume until early next year.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category