The latest news on Iraq Oil Exports – crude oil, oil pipelines and more – brought to you by Iraq Business News
By John Lee. Russian oil company Lukoil was asked to "sharply reduce" output at West Qurna-2 this year, reports Reuters. Ravil Maganov (pictured), head of the company's upstream division, told reporters: "We've got the letter to curb our enthusiasm ... We were restricted to 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to weather and level of […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Iraq's plan to split its Basra crude into 'heavy' and 'light' grades from May should reduce quality issues dogging its exports, but adds that there will be challenges getting the price it wants and setting up the required infrastructure. An official at the state-run South Oil Company (SOC), who […]
By John Lee. Oil exports from Iraq increased in March to 2.980 million barrels per day (bpd), up from to 2.597 million bpd in February. Exports from the Gulf terminals reached 2.712 million bpd, while exports by pipeline from the north amounted to 268,000 bpd. Iraq exported a total of 92.401 million barrels over month, […]
By John Lee. A Greek shipping company has reportedly agreed to settle with Baghdad over its role in the export of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan, which Baghdad regards as illegal. Last September, the federal government in Baghdad filed a $300-million lawsuit against Marine Management Services (MMS), and subsequently banned three of its oil tankers from […]
By John Lee. A backlog of over 30 oil tankers, two-thirds of them supertankers (VLCC), has built up outside Basra post, and shippers face delays of up to three weeks because of bad weather and possible oil quality issues, according to a report from Reuters. Shipping industry sources said the problems could delay or limit […]
By John Lee. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz (pictured) said on Thursday that oil shipments from Iraq via Turkey now amount to 47 million barrels since the beginning of last. He told a news conference that 57 tankers have loaded Iraqi crude at Ceyhan, bringing revenues of $3 billion (3.6 trillion Iraqi dinars). (Source: Reuters)
By Amberin Zaman for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. As the battle grinds on against the Islamic State — also known as IS, ISIL and Daesh — there is growing concern about the mounting influence of Iran and Shiite militias known […]
By John Lee. Reuters cites sources as saying that Basra Heavy crude, with an API gravity of 24 degrees, will be sold from May. It will be allocated to companies with technical service contracts, such as Lukoil , Petronas, CNPC, CNOOC, BP, ExxonMobil and Shell. The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) had previously abandoned plans […]
By John Lee. India's oil ministry has instructed state refiners Indian Oil Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) to buy eight million barrels of Basra crude oil for delivery in May and June. The country is looking to build up its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) at the current low market prices. A source told Reuters […]
By John Lee. Ashti Hawrami (pictured), KRG energy minister, has said that Iraqi Kurdistan is expected to reach financial self-sufficiency from Baghdad within months, despite central government withholding the region’s 17 percent share of budget. Speaking to Rudaw, he outlined plans to increase oil production to 750,000 bpd by the end of this year. In a […]
By John Lee. An un-named industry source has told BasNews that oil production in Kirkuk has risen to 400,000 bpd. He said that, to begin with, they were exporting only 150,000 bpd through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Ceyhan Port in Turkey, but later increased this to 300,000 bpd, eventually reaching 400,000 bpd on Monday. […]
By John Lee. India's oil imports from Iraq have seen a sharp increase in January, according to Platts, climbing 56 percent to 2.48 million mt. Eklavya Gupte, associate editor, Europe and Africa crude oil, at Platts said: “Indian refiners are importing Iraqi Basrah light crude oil to compensate for the drop in imports from Iran […]
