No relief in sight for fuel-starved Iraqis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's chronic energy shortages showed no sign of abating on Friday as a bustling black market continued to keep official outlets starved of fuel.

With residents queuing for up to a day to fill up with gasoline at Baghdad's pumping stations for less than one cent per litre, children by roadsides touting cans were offering a swift service for 12 times as much.

"People fill up their car tanks and empty them in cans outside to sell. We cannot prevent them or a riot would ensue," said Omar Abdel Hamid, manager of the Abu Qalam gas station.

"There is a lack of confidence. I have had supply for the past few days, but customers do not believe there will be petrol tomorrow and continue to hoard. We emerged from the catastrophic government of Saddam Hussein into another disaster," he said before intervening to calm angry customers.

The oil distribution system in Iraq, which sits on the world's second largest oil reserves, covered demand before the U.S. invasion.

...

"The electricity has been getting worse. It is four hours off, two hours on at our house now," one man said.

An engineer helping rebuild the power grid expected no improvement soon, saying the power system was never rebuilt properly after the 1991 Gulf War and took another hit from U.S. bombing.

"Looting remains rampant for copper wires and transmission towers," he said. "The whole system is disjointed."

(much more)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/107064603125.htm

"The shortages carry a political cost, damaging U.S. credibility, especially since a subsidiary of U.S. company Halliburton was awarded a contract to import oil products into Iraq. U.S. lawmakers criticised the contract as being abortively expensive. "

"fuel-starved Iraqis" is almost an oxymoron . . . but then again, the US is running the country, s-o-o-o-o . . .

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