Iraq port buckles under demand of arriving oil majors

Iraq's hopes of building economic prosperity on the back of multibillion-dollar deals to develop its vast oil reserves have met a major hurdle in a lack of dock space and an impenetrable bureaucracy at its top port.Neglect, under-investment, combined with red tape, corruption and bureaucracy have left Umm Qasr port, near the oil hub of Basra, ill-equipped to deal with the demands of oil majors trying to pour tonnes of equipment into Iraq.

"This port is the worst in the Middle East," said an agent working for a foreign company at Umm Qasr as ships queued in the Gulf and trucks waited in long lines to collect their cargo."No machinery, no services, no system," the agent said, barely able to disguise his frustration.Emerging from decades of war, sanctions, and economic decline, Iraq is banking on a quadrupling of oil output capacity to claw its way out of the chaos unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.