oil

Iraq aims for 1.65 mbpd H2 term deals for Basra Lt

Iraq has signed term supply contracts for Basra Light crude for the second half of 2004 for 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of sales and aims to reach a total 1.65 million bpd, an industry source said on Tuesday.

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In the process, SOMO has expanded slightly its market in oil-thirsty Asia and added a new customer in the United States, the SOMO source told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad.

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Listed below are term buyers signed up so far by SOMO for the second half of 2004. New buyers are denoted with an *

NORTH AMERICA

ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Valero Energy, Vitol unit North Atlantic and Tesoro Pertroleum Corp*

EUROPE

Total, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP, ENI, Repsol YPF and Cepsa

ASIA

Indian Oil Corp, Reliance Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Unipec, Sinochem, Mitsubishi Corp, PetroChina*, Chinese Petroleum Corp* and Thai Petrochemical Industry*

This is what it's all about. Oil. So while this may not be the most interesting news to read, this is the whole reason the US is occupying Iraq.

An article in the Washington Post mentions some new names contractor wise. Contractors Sometimes Stretch Their Deals

In April 2003, the Defense Department hired Military Professional Resources Inc., an Alexandria government contractor, to supply Arabic translators in Iraq. The two parties agreed on a $1.9 million price and the deal was done.

The translators were hired under a federal contract category designed for the employment of education and training analysts, not linguists, according to a report by the Defense Department's inspector general. The military contracting officer who approved the deal told investigators he did not check the General Services Administration schedule to make sure that translation services were within the scope of MPRI's contract with the government.

Hello. Kidding, right? Apparently not.

"Noncompliance of a GSA schedule is an issue between the GSA and the contractor," the report says.

MPRI, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp., was never disciplined by the GSA, according to company and government officials.

The article goes on to discuss other contractors. But here is the key phrase:

The Defense Department inspector general's report on contracting procedures in Iraq, issued in March, said "supplies and services were acquired quickly and contracting rules were either circumvented or liberally interpreted."

Companies named in the report are:
MZM Inc. of the District
Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego
Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa.,
MPRI, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp. (L3 was Jay Garner's stomping grounds)

Basically, hand out the money and worry about the details later. Who cares, its just the US treasury. There's more where that came from. We don't know if it's laziness or hubris but it's really inexcusable.

Chalk this up as another article on a report that will just fade into the woodwork. No one is accountable anymore.