BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraq’s American administrators have appointed two Iraqi oil officials and a retired American oil executive to head Iraq’s Oil Ministry, a spokesman for the team helping to rebuild Iraq said Sunday.

Thamer Abbas al-Ghadban, who was general director of the ministry’s studies, planning and follow-up departments, will be the ministry’s chief executive officer, according to John Kincannon, a spokesman for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

His deputy will be Fadhil Othman, a former Iraqi oil executive who has spent recent years in exile, will be al-Ghadban’s deputy, Kincannon said.

The head of the ministry’s advisory board will be Philip J. Carroll, a retired chief executive of Shell Oil Co., Kincannon said. Shell Oil Co. is the U.S. arm of London-based Royal Dutch-Shell Group.

The United States is treading carefully as it appoints overseers for Iraq’s government operations, and nowhere, perhaps is more sensitive than the oil sector. Many Iraqis have said they believe American occupiers have designs on the country’s oil.

President Bush has said that Iraq’s oil will be used to benefit the Iraqi people.

Iraq faces the challenge of boosting oil output to the 3.5 million barrels a day it pumped before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.



Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.