Report: Iraq oil industry in $16 billion shortfall over last 2 years

WASHINGTON -- Iraq's most important moneymaker -- its oil industry -- lost $16 billion in potential foreign sales over two years to insurgent attacks, criminals and bad equipment, a secret U.S. audit says.

The Baghdad government "must take bold action" to protect its oil and electrical facilities, concludes an unclassified summary of the classified audit on Iraq's energy sector.

"Iraq cannot prosper without uninterrupted export of oil and the reliable delivery of electricity," Stuart W. Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in the summary released Thursday.

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