For its part, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil saw statements by Iranian officials on Iraq’s intention to increase its oil exports as being more political than technical. It described the increase in Iraqi production as normal.
The official spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Assim Jihad, said in a statement to Al-Monitor, “Iraq by its very nature does not compete with anyone and does not wish to compensate or take the place of the exports of any country, particularly those of its neighbors.” He explained, “Iraq’s crude oil production is not the same as its reserves in the first place. Its [production] is also less than the shares allotted to it by OPEC,” referring to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“We do not deny that Iraq has plans to increase its oil exports up to a maximum of 7 million barrels per day by 2017, which is our right as guaranteed by OPEC law,” Jihad explained. He asserted, “The ministry has already been working on procedures and plans for its oil exports to be 2.9 million barrels per day in 2013. We were not, however, able to reach this number for two reasons: acts of terrorism that have affected oil facilities and the central government’s inability to acquire 250,000 barrels per day from the Kurdistan Regional Government after past agreements with it were withdrawn.”
Moayyed al-Shaliji, an expert in the fields of oil and gas, affirmed to Al-Monitor that OPEC is aware of the sanctions imposed on Iran that affect its oil trade. According to him, there must be some other country that can make up for the gap these sanctions create and prevent the market from collapsing. He said, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia usually takes on this role since it has competitive reserves and a surplus that can compensate for any dependent country in exportation for whatever reason.”
Shaliji explained, “Iraq does not have the ability to export enough to make up for the gap in the oil market left by Iran,” and added, “Iraq’s plans to increase its oil exports may have some sort of impact on Iran. However, this impact will be made up for by the different Iranian goods that will enter into Iraq.”
Iran Wary of Iraqi Oil Export Plans | Iraq Business News http://t.co/lFdQxN48At
We, “the Iraqis” only have few words to these Iranian minions and their other idiots (Iran’s oil minister “Zangeneh” and Iranian Deputy Ambassador to Iraq “Aziz Salihi”)
First of all, why are these ultra nationalist (Shah of Iran’s era) Iranians only picking on IRAQ? Why don’t you go after other countries around the world (who are currently producing oil) and tell them they are harming Iran as well by producing oil at high levels (so harmless to Iran) such as Russia (10.9 million barrels of crude per day), Saudi Arabia (9.9), USA (8.4), China (4), Canada (3.6) and others like Venezuela (3), Brazil (2.6) and Nigeria (2.5)?? Maybe these two misinformed Iranian stooges have short memory and we need to remind them and EVERYONE’s else how Iran benefited after the USA and other western powers put devastating sanctions on Iraq for well over 12 years while Iran reached oil production levels of (4 million barrels of crude per day) and profited immensely on behalf of the misery of millions of Iraqis for decades since 1991!!
Second, Iraq did not put these sanctions on Iran, the US did, so the IRI have no right to punish Iraq or dictate Iraq’s oil (or Iraq’s other energy) policies and blame anything on Iraq (Iraq is justly and only looking after Iraq’s people and its own god given rights and interests)…
Third, if it was for the Iraqis, we would definitely and positively pass laws in the Iraqi parliament to boycott all Iranian products (from low grade cement to all sorts of other bad quality products) from entering Iraq and stop, prevent and block awarding lucrative projects to 2-bit Iranian companies which, BTW, are the nastiest companies representing the worst kind of business models around the world!!
And one final note regarding Iraq’s future oil production levels… Maybe Iraq will try to reach (7 million barrels of crude per day) by 2017 (and that is a big IF) but Iraq will abide by OPEC exporting quotas allocated for Iraq currently set at (4.5 million barrels of crude per day) while the remaining and extra (2.5~3) will be needed inside Iraq for domestic consumption (for the next 20 years to come) to rebuild Iraq and reconstruct a country that see nothing but wars and destructions (under dictatorship rule) for the past 30 years and Iraq needs the help and support of ALL civilized countries and friendly nations to reach that decent and peaceful goal (unlike the Iranians who are clearly showing jealousy and espousing hatred by making ignorant statements such as the ones made above by these TWO STUPID Iranians we read in this article!!