Iraq plans to ship 17 cargoes of Basrah Light crude oil from the Persian Gulf in the first half of February, according to a loading program obtained by Bloomberg.

This would be two cargoes more than in the second half of January.

A total of 28.06 million barrels, or 1.87 million barrels a day, will be loaded from Basrah Oil Terminal (pictured).

The program comprises:

• 12 shipments of 2 million barrels each;
• two shipments of 1 million barrels each;
• two shipments of 715,000-barrels each; and,
• one shipment of 630,000-barrels.

Basrah Light is a so-called medium sour crude, which yields less higher-value refined products than benchmark grades such as Brent.

Loading programs are schedules of crude shipments compiled by field operators to allow buyers and sellers to plan their supply and trading activities.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Iraq Business News is delighted to bring you the latest Iraq Market Tracker report from Dunia Frontier Consultants. The market tracker highlights the activities and market performance of a basket of publicly traded firms who derive a significant percentage of their revenues from operations in Iraq, but are traded on foreign exchanges: a proxy Iraq play as much as practicable. It also identifies and analyzes the primary political and security events that occur in country that have market-moving implications.

Click here to access the report.
 

Companies Mentioned:

ExxonMobil, Lukoil, Statoil, Total, Samsung

Action Calls:

• National Reconciliation Conference looks dead, Sadrists ask their price: Nothing likely to come of it, unless it is to be used to announce developments elsewhere.
• Exxon moving into KRG: Exxon has their contractual commitments, so expect this to continue.
• Total close to securing Kurdistan oil rights: Just as we predicted, another major moving towards Kurdistan.

Headlines:

• Increasing attacks along the trigger line: Triggered by increasing political uncertainty, something to watch.
• Samsung wins $1 billion WQ-2 contract: Shows that life goes on in southern Iraq.

Calendar:

• 31 Jan – Parliament to reconvene
• This week – Exxon reports, Basra single point mooring set enter service
• Next month – National Reconciliation Conference

Click here to access the report, or to add your email address to Dunia’s mailing list to receive the Iraq Market Tracker via email.

The opening ceremony to inaugurate Iraq’s first floating oil terminal was postponed until further notice, an Oil Ministry spokesman announced on Wednesday.

Aswat al-Iraq reports that there were ‘operational problems’, while Bloomberg’s contact gave no reason for the delay, the third since last month.

The terminal, which has an export capacity of 900,000 bpd, was supposed to be opened for operations today (Wednesday).

(Sources: Aswat al-Iraq, Bloomberg)

Increased volumes and the higher price of crude oil pushed Iraq’s income from oil sales up by nearly 60 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to AFP.

Oil ministry figures published on Monday showed that total exports of oil increased 15 percent to 790.5 million barrels of oil, or an average of around 2.17 million barrels per day (bpd), compared to 689.9 million barrels in 2010.

Prices rose by around a third, bringing in revenue of $82.988 billion in 2011, versus $52.2 billion the previous year.

Iraq exported 66.5 million barrels of oil in December, the highest such figure since August, at an average price of $106.18 per barrel, generating $7.061 billion in revenues.

May, however, remained Iraq’s best month in 2011, with 69 million barrels of exports bringing in $7.47 billion.

(Source: AFP)

Iraq would be drastically affected should Iran block the Hormuz Strait. Most of the oil Iraq produces is exported via the Strait. The scenario is seeing Iraq, distinct because of its good relations with both the US and Iran, practice its new diplomacy again, according to this article from NIQASH.

Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Iran’s threats to block seagoing traffic in the Hormuz Strait, one of the most important waterways in the world, have caused strong reactions in Iran’s neighbour, Iraq, as well. Iran has made the threats in response to possible European and US economic sanctions. And despite the current internal political turmoil in Iraq, it has also led to another significant attempt by Iraq at international diplomacy.

Around one fifth of all crude oil passes through the narrow shipping channel, which lies between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Iraq is currently heading OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and as such, Iraq’s Minister of Oil Abdul-Kareem Luaibi announced that he would be travelling to Tehran this week in order to extract assurances from Iran that they wouldn’t block the Strait.

In terms of diplomacy, this is another notable attempt at mediation by Iraq. The most recent involved Iraq’s intervention between the Arab League and Syria, which continues this week with Iraq declaring further intentions to continue to assist in trying to defuse the Syrian crisis.

In terms of the Hormuz Strait issue, Iraq is really the only nation that can do this kind of thing, as it has good relationships with the US and Iran. Iraq also sits in the middle between the nations like Saudi Arabia who are friendly towards the US and nations that consider themselves resistant to US influence, such as Iran. It’s hard to say whether this diplomatic role will continue in the future – some believe that Iran’s influence will grow and lead Iraq into that country’s corner whereas others say that US influence will remain strong.

The first of four new single-point mooring facilities will be ready to commence operations on Jan. 25, according to a report from Bloomberg.

If correct, this would be a pull-forward of the schedule reported by Reuters on 4th Jan.

Dhia Jaafar, director general of South Oil Company, said the project involves laying pipelines, building eight storage tanks and three other mooring facilities.

Each of the four facilities will add 900,000 bpd to the country’s capacity to export crude oil, Hussain al- Shahristani, deputy prime minister for energy affairs, said last month.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Bloomberg reports that Iraq will increase its exports of Kirkuk crude for January from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan (pictured) by 3.5 percent from last month.

The loading program obtained by comprises 18 cargoes totaling 13.88 million barrels, or 447,742 barrels a day, compared with 432,677 barrels a day for December.

The cargo sizes range from 300,000 barrels to 1.1 million barrels.

Loading programs are monthly schedules of crude shipments compiled by field operators to allow buyers and sellers to plan their supply and trading activities.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Iraq plans to start shipping crude from the first of its three new offshore export terminals in the Gulf at the start of February, according to Reuters.

The new single-point mooring (SPM), which will boost export capacity by 900,000 barrels per day, was due to start operation on 1st January, but testing of new pipelines has not been completed.

Consultation between the oil ministry, the South Oil Company and project manager Foster Wheeler last week produced the new schedule, officials said.

The other two moorings will be installed by the end of the year.

Iraq’s $1.3 billion export expansion project in the Gulf includes the construction of two undersea pipelines and one onshore pipeline, as well as four single-point moorings for loading tankers.

Bringing the first three SPMs on line would boost Iraq’s export capacity in the Gulf by 2.7 million bpd, more than doubling Basra’s current capacity. Its two current Gulf terminals can handle around 1.7 million bpd.

Iraq also has plans in place to build a third Gulf pipeline and a fourth SPM, while a fifth SPM is on its wish list.

(Source: Reuters)