Attacks Blamed for Iraq's Fuel Shortages

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20041211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_oil


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The fuel shortage — ironic in a country with some of the world's largest petroleum reserves — has embarrassed Iraq's interim government. Other services also are barely functioning. Electricity supplies remain erratic, with frequent outages plaguing the Baghdad and other cities.


Lines at gas stations in Baghdad stretch for miles, forcing some drivers to wait for 18 hours before reaching the pumps. Although the official price of gasoline is about 5 cents a gallon, it can reach 50 cents on the black market.


Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan laid the blame for the shortages on the rebels. "They want to make fuel shortages, (provoke) chaos in the country and prove the government has failed," Ghadbhan told a news conference.


Exports from Iraq's northern oil fields resumed Saturday, after insurgents last month blew up part of the main pipeline carrying Iraqi crude to Turkey.



A U.S. soldier provides security at a gas station while Iraqi women wait in line, in western Baghdad's Shi'ite suburb of al-Sadr city, December 8, 2004. U.S. officials in Baghdad fear that a fuel crisis, which has left Iraqi homes cold and dark and drivers waiting days for gasoline, may inflame unrest before the election. 'If the current situation does not improve quickly, public confidence in the government may deteriorate significantly,' a diplomat wrote this week in a note circulated among the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq (news - web sites) and obtained by Reuters. (Reuters