イラク最大の精油所の石油の3分の1が闇市場に

The Baiji refinery, with its distillation towers rising against the Hamrin Mountains, may be the most important industrial site in the Sunni Arab-dominated regions of Iraq. On a good day, 500 tanker trucks will leave the refinery filled with fuel with a street value of $10 million.
The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, then make it prosper. But at least one-third, and possibly much more, of the fuel from Iraq’s largest refinery here is diverted to the black market, according to American military officials. Tankers are hijacked, drivers are bribed, papers are forged and meters are manipulated -- and some of the earnings go to insurgents who are still killing more than 100 Iraqis a week.

　バイジの石油精製施設といえば、イラクでも最大規模といわれ、イラク復興の資金源ともなっているわけだが、何と、そこで精製された石油の少なくとも3分の1がブラックマーケットに流れているという。そのうちの一部が反政府勢力やテロに流れていっているとみられる。石油を横領したことで精油所の幹部が逮捕されたらしいが、イラク問題の根は深いなあ。