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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many barrels of oil have been exported from Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein; what value this represents; and what use has been made of these funds within Iraq. [174046] Mr. Mullin: All proceeds from the export sale of Iraq's oil are deposited in the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), as agreed in United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1483. As of 17 May 2004 approximately US$ 9.4 billion had been deposited into the DFI from the export sale of oil since 28 May 2003. Information on the volume of oil exports from Iraq by month can be found on the US Department of Defense website at http://www.defendamerica.mil/. Average crude oil exports for each month since June 2003 to April 2004 are as follows: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Monthly average crude oil exports from Iraq-- millions of barrels per day June 2003 0.2 July 2003 0.322 August 2003 0.646 September 2003 0.983 October 2003 1.149 November 2003 1.524 December 2003 1.541 January 2004 1.537 February 2004 1.382 March 2004 1.825 April 2004 1.804 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. As determined in UNSCR 1483 all DFI funds are to be used in a transparent manner to meet the needs of the Iraqi people. The Iraqi Ministry of Finance and of Planning and Development Co-operation working with the CPA have published Budgets for 2003 and 2004 which outline the use of oil revenues in public expenditure in Iraq (Budget information can be found on the CPA website at http://www.cpa-iraq.org/budget/). Disbursements have included support of food production and distribution programmes, currency exchange programmes, electricity and oil infrastructure programmes, equipment for Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civil service salaries and ministry budget operations.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

174046; 421 c1814-5W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Finance Iraq Oil UN resolutions Foreign trade

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk