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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s battered oil industry is managing to produce 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), the top US official in the occupied nation said. "Yesterday we produced 1,624,000 barrels of oil. We've been averaging about 1.5 million barrels a day for the last 10 days," Paul Bremer told reporters here Sunday. The chief executive of Iraq's oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban, said Tuesday that the country's oil production capacity had increased to nearly two million (bpd). He said at least one million bpd of sustainable export capacity would be "achieved very soon". The Iraqi oil...

US appoints new Iraqi oil minister The US-led association overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has appointed former Director of planning at Iraq’s oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban as new head of the department. Former head of Royal Dutch/Shell Phillip Carroll will head an advisory board to the ministry, revealed US spokesman John Kincannon. According to an Iraqi oil ministry official, Ghadhban's position will be temporary until a future interim government formally selects a minister. Educated in the UK, Ghadhban played a major role in Iraq's Southern Oil Company and was a top adviser to the former Iraqi oil minister. In a bid...