THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: RESOURCES; Oil Experts See Long-Term Risk To Iraqi Underground Reserves

“As the Bush administration spends hundreds of millions of dollars to repair the pipes and pumps above ground that carry Iraq’s oil, it has not addressed serious problems with Iraq’s underground oil reservoirs, which American and Iraqi experts say could severely limit the amount of oil those fields produce.”

“In northern Iraq, the large but aging Kirkuk field suffers from too much water seeping into its oil deposits, the experts say, and similar problems are evident in the sprawling oil fields in southern Iraq.”

“Experts familiar with the Iraqi oil industry have said years of poor management damaged the fields, and some warn that the current drive to rapidly return the fields to prewar capacity risks reducing their productivity in the long run.”

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