Iraq fuel smuggling is booming business

The rusted skiffs chug down this broad channel lined with marsh, sometimes so laden with illegal cargo that they rise only inches above the water.

Usually they’re carrying diesel fuel, bought cheaply in Iraq and smuggled for a handy profit to countries such as Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

To authorities here in the southern tip of Iraq, the smugglers are no more than a law enforcement nuisance. But for U.S. and Iraqi officials, they are the result of what has become one of the most vexing problems in rebuilding Iraq: cheap gas.

…Smuggling has exacerbated a severe fuel shortage in Iraq, leading to long gas lines and forcing a nation with the world’s second-largest reserves of oil to import from $240 million to $400 million per month in fuel, according to various estimates.

Baltimore Sun