Gary Loew, director of planning for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), said rampant pillaging of Iraq's oil network now accounts for more than $800 million of infrastructure repair costs already in excess of $1 billion. "We're estimating that about three quarters of the damages are due to looting," he said. "So that set us back. But we still have a schedule to get export sales and refining capacity up, and we're not that far off - maybe three weeks to a month." Iraqi oilfields are now pumping about 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) versus an initial target to reach 1.5 million bpd by the end of June. But Loew hopes Iraqi and US technicians can turn up the taps to hit a mid-July export target of one million bpd. "If we just had a stable work environment everybody could work quicker," he told Reuters in an interview. "We're still in the situation where we have to send armed escorts out with the work crews." Iraq's oilfields - which cranked out three million bpd before the war - sustained only minor damage amounting to about $250-$350 million before lawlessness set in, Loew said. But costs racked up as bandits hauled away tons of tools, desks, light sockets and industrial gear. "There's been this continuing wave of organized criminal activity where they've been going in and taking out compressors, pumps, control units - big pieces of equipment - things that you'd need trucks and cranes to move," he said.

Peg Mackey