Hundreds of men have queued up to register themselves and their particular skills at a derelict, looted office of the state-owned North Oil Co.

Ibrahim Ahmad, in charge of the registration process, said that by Tuesday evening nearly 5,000 people had signed up.

More than 10,000 people used to be employed by the company, but most have not been paid for more than two months, according to those waiting in line.

Faraidun Abdul Kader, the self-style temporary governor of Kirkuk, unrecognized by the Americans, said Wednesday the hundreds of wells in the area, which account for a large share of national production, should start producing crude again "in the next two or three weeks".

"We have called all employees of oil and gas companies, schools, and government workers to resume work from Saturday, and for others to head back the following week," he said.

The frenzied looting following last week's capture by US-backed Kurdish peshmerga fighters off Kirkuk and Mosul, another key northern oil city, also spread to surrounding industrial zones.

In Babagorgur, a key zone that had produced more than 600,000 barrels per day from around 400 wells before the war, was badly ravaged. Workshops have been devastated and machinery destroyed.

In one office, workmen tried to find their professional files among the piles of papers trashed and thrown on the floor.

Adnane Ali Jumat, 42, says that "this dossier, is his life, without which he can do nothing."

Despite the widespread looting Kader, said the wells themselves had not sustained major damage.

His assessment was affirmed by Rebuar Jamil, a 30-year-old engineer at the By Hassan field, who said production could start again in a few days.

After Kirkuk fell last Thursday, Kurdish fighters and US troops seized the oil fields and have kept them under close guard ever since.

Witnesses say most of the looting took place between the time the US-led coalition began its military push on March 20 to dislodge the regime of President Saddam Hussein and before the Kurds took the city.

Kader said he does not know whether the peshmergas or the Americans have control over the fields.

The subject is a sensitive one. Kurdish control over the oil resources would trigger alarm bells in Turkey.

Ankara fears that could spur independence efforts by Iraqi Kurds which, in turn, could generate unrest among its own sizeable Kurdish population.

Kader, however, said the securing of the oil fields was essential to prevent them being sabotaged by fleeing fighters loyal to Saddam.

He said neither the Kurds nor the Americans have any intention of controlling the city's oil resources.

"I asked the Americans if they were going to export this oil. They told me that it was not their role," he said.

Kader, the interior minister for the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan (PUK), one of two factions in northern Iraq's Kurdish enclave which has had autonomy from Baghdad since 1991, denied that the PUK would use the oil revenue to bankroll itself.

"One part will go to the employees, another will be assigned to the public budget, and a third will be placed in the bank while waiting for the formation of a new Iraqi government," he said.

SPACE.WIRE