Iraqi insurgents waging 'all-out war' on oil industry: minister

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraqoileconomy

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents are waging an all-out war on the country's vital oil industry which has lost nearly eight billion dollars in revenue since last year's US-led invasion, Oil Minister Thamer Ghadban said.


"We want to tell the Iraqi people that there is an all-out war against the country's oil infrastructure," Ghadban told reporters as he toured the capital's Dura refinery, which came under mortar fire last week.


Ghadban estimated lost export revenue from sabotage at about eight billion dollars since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), which sits on the world's second largest reserves of crude oil.


"Exports are now limited only to the south, there are no exports in the north," he added. Oil exports from southern terminals in Basra are averaging 1.8 million barrels per day.


Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) ordered his supporters to sabotage oil facilities in Iraq and the Gulf, in an audiotape attributed to the Al-Qaeda leader broadcast on an Islamist website last month.



A oil refinery worker inspects broken pipes and equipment at the Dura Oil refinery in southern Baghdad, as Iraqi Minister of Oil Thamer Abbas Ghadban toured the site. Iraqi insurgents are waging an all-out war on the country's vital oil industry which has lost nearly eight billion dollars in revenue since last year's US-led invasion, Oil Minister Thamer Ghadban said.(AFP/Sabah Arar