Iraqi oil fields under U.S. control

by The Associated Press

All oil fields in Iraq now fall within areas controlled by the U.S. coalition, a U.S. general announced April 14.

Allied forces had previously secured all 1,000 oil wells in southern Iraq. Kurdish allies last week seized the northern oil city of Kirkuk, Iraq's No. 2 oil center, which pumps as much as 900,000 barrels a day.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks made the announcement at a U.S. Central Command briefing in Doha, Qatar.

"There is one well we discovered in the north in recent days that is still burning, and that will be addressed as soon as we can do so," he added.

Iraq has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves, at 112 billion barrels, but its pipelines, pumping stations and oil reservoirs have suffered for years from a dearth of funds and lack of maintenance. In recent years, oil revenue has accounted for 95 percent of Iraq's revenue and is estimated at $22 billion a year.

On April 13, Kuwaiti firefighters extinguished the last oil well fire in Iraq's southern al-Rumeila field. Since the war began, firefighters have put out fires at four Iraqi oil wells that were sabotaged by Saddam Hussein's loyalists. Another seven wells sabotaged by Iraqis went out by themselves.

Saddam's forces booby-trapped hundreds of Kuwait's oil wells after invading the country in 1990, and blew them up during the 1991 Gulf War as U.S. forces drove them out of Kuwait. It took months for the fires to be put out.