Baghdad, Sept 29: Iraq's oil industry is not prepared to deal with the millennium bug and may well be forced to shut down production and exports at the turn of the year, a reliable industry source in Baghdad said on Wednesday.The source told Reuters that Iraqi oil officials were aware of the year 2000 computer problem but had decided to avoid the multi-million dollar cost of dealing with it.
Asked what the oil ministry was doing to counter the Y2K changeover, the source said: "They are doing nothing."
There was no immediate comment from the oil ministry.
"There is awareness of Y2K but consultancy is very expensive. The alternative is to lose production over the millennium," the source said.He said Iraqi crude pumping stations and export facilities were likely to be hit by the problem and that engineers would have to deal with disruptions adhoc.
Iraq is now Opec's third largest exporter, delivering an average of 2.4 million barrels a day to world markets over the last month.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.