Iraqi oil minister: southern fields made record daily exports in December
An Iraqi oil field
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s oil minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said Wednesday that oil fields in the south of the country have recorded an “unprecedented” surge in daily exports during the last month.
In a letter to Prime Minister Haider al-Luaibi, quoted by the ministry’s Facebook page, Luaibi pointed to “an increase in daily export rates from southern ports to 3.535 million barrels a day during the month of December”, a rate which he labelled as “unprecedented”.
He pointed that the ministry had decided in 2017 to boost production from southern ports in order to offset the halt of exports via the northern outlets.
On Tuesday, the ministry said Iraq exported more than 109 million oil barrels during the month of December.
Pointing to a “record” rise in exports and revenues, the ministry said a preliminary statistic from the state-run marketing company, SOMO, crude oil exports stood at more than 109.573 barrels.
Those, according to the oil ministry spokesperson Assem Jihad, yielded revenues more than USD 6.496.203 billion.
The statistic, again, did not mention exports from oil fields in the province of Kirkuk.
Daily exports recorded a rise to 3.535 million barrels, an increase from the rate recorded during November, the spokesman noted.
The price per barrel stood at an average of USD59.286, he revealed.
Iraq exported crude oil worth USD6.83 billion during the month of November, the country’s marketing company said in a recent statistic.
The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) said that was the worth of 105.51 million barrels exported during the month, with an average price per barrel of USD57.194.
The statistic put the daily export rate at 3.503 million barrels.
Iraq’s oil ministry had unveiled intentions to drive up crude oil production to five million barrels a day before the end of 2017.
Iraq is OPEC’s second largest oil producer following Saudi Arabia.