Iraqi oil exports down amid OPEC+ production cuts, bad weather

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Oil Ministry said on Monday that the country’s oil exports averaged 3.377 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, a continued downward trend in the country’s exports in recent months.

In February, Iraq exported 3.62 million bpd of crude, a figure that was slightly less than January’s. Iraq is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) second-largest producer just after Saudi Arabia and currently has an output below its maximum capacity of nearly five million bpd.

In early January, Baghdad reaffirmed its commitment to cut annual oil production as per an agreement between OPEC and additional non-member states such as Russia – known together as OPEC+ – to curtail global supply in order to bolster prices. 

According to the oil ministry, the Basra port had exported 3.254 million bpd, a decline from the previous month’s 3.54. A media report quoted informed Iraqi officials as saying that poor weather conditions had contributed to the stark reduction.

Iraqi authorities have issued multiple warnings of possible floods across parts of the country amid another incidence of torrential rains.

“Rough weather forced us to stop loading operations more than once at the export terminals. We had to cut output from some oilfields during the export halt,” Reuters quoted one anonymous official as saying.

The condition also purportedly forced production cuts at some oil fields, according to Reuters, including the southern field of Majnoon, where output was down from 240,000 bpd in early March to 140,000 toward the middle of the month.

Exports from oil fields in Kirkuk province to Turkey’s Ceyhan port rose to 99,000 bpd in March, from 63,000 bpd the month before, the ministry added.

It also reported that the average sale price last month was USD 63.804 per barrel, generating about USD 6.68 billion in revenue.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany