Iraq to Stop Exporting Crude Oil Monday

An Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman, quoted Saturday by the official Iraqi News Agency, said the embargo will begin at 8 a.m. local time Monday, but didn't reveal how long it would last. The move is in reaction to a United Nations decision to give its members more time to study an U.S.-supported plan to adjust sanctions against Iraq. The announcement came on the heels of a Friday decision by the U.N. Security Council to extend by one month the oil-for-food program. That initiative allows Iraq to export oil, but mandates the nation can only use revenues to buy specific humanitarian goods under supervision by the U.N. Besides its own Gulf export terminals, Iraq exports through a pipeline running from its northern Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It wasn't immediately known how long the Iraqi halt of oil exports would last. Iraq produces about 3.2 million barrels of oil per day, of which about 2 million barrels per day has been exported under the U.N. program.