Iraq’s Oil Industry Had Mixed Jan 2019

(Reuters)

Iraq’s oil industry had mixed results in January 2019. Exports were the second highest ever, while prices and revenues both increased, but were below last year’s averages.  

Iraq exported an average of 3.649 million barrels a day at the start of 2019. 3.556 million of that flowed through the ports in Basra while 74,690 barrels a day went to Turkey. That was the second highest level after December’s 3.726 million. The previous high was 3.583 million barrels achieved in August 2018.

Prices for Iraqi crude dipped in December, but recovered a bit in January. At the end of 2018 Iraq was selling oil for $52.80 per barrel, the lowest price since October 2017. In January that went up to $56.15. That was still below the 2018 average of $65.61 per barrel. A new OPEC production quota is supposed to go into effect based upon October’s production level to try to boost international prices. Baghdad has said it will comply, but it was one of the biggest cheaters the last time the organization set a cap. That’s because the Oil Ministry’s goal is to continuously push its output.

The high exports and slight price increase meant revenues were up in January. Iraq earned $6.352 billion. That was up from $6.1 billion in both November and December. At the same time it was below last year’s average of $6.9 billion. As Iraq Oil Report pointed out that was also didn’t meet the $6.6 billion mark set in the 2019 budget. Iraq is hoping that the oil market will recover and prices will push back into the $60 a barrel range so it won’t face another budget deficit.

Federal Oil Exports, Prices, Revenues 2014-2018

Month	Avg Export (Mil)	Avg Price	Earnings (Bil)
Jan 2014	2.228	$102.37	$7.073
Feb	2.799	$102.05	$7.9
Mar	2.396	$101.03	$7.507
Apr	2.51	$100.69	$7.582
May	2.58	$100.69	$8.077
Jun	2.423	$102.96	$7.47
Jul	2.442	$102.27	$7.8
Aug	2.375	$97.44	$7.172
Sep	2.542	$90.76	$7
Oct	2.461	$81.12	$6.19
Nov	2.51	$70.40	$5.238
Dec	2.94	$57	$5.195
2014 Totals	2.517	$92.39	$7.017
Jan 2015	2.535	$41.45	$3.258
Feb	2.597	$47.43	$3.449
Mar	2.980	$48.24	$3.449
Apr	3.077	$51.70	$4.8
May	3.145	$55.87	$5.447
Jun	3.187	$55.32	$5.289
Jul	3.105	$50.99	$4.908
Aug	3.079	$40.59	$3.925
Sep	3.052	$40.32	$3.725
Oct	2.703	$39.56	$3.29
Nov	3.363	$36.42	$3.66
Dec	3.216	$29.84	$2.92
2015 Totals	3.003	$44.81	$4.094
Jan 2016	3.285	$22.21	$2.262
Feb	3.224	$23	$2.249
Mar	3.287	$28.40	$2.894
Apr	3.363	$33.38	$3.368
May	3.2	$37.78	$3.748
Jun	3.175	$40.36	$3.845
Jul	3.203	$38.28	$3.802
Aug	3.229	$29.24	$3.928
Sep	3.276	$38.89	$3.822
Oct	3.384	-	$4.426
Nov	3.47	$40	$4.216
Dec	3.52	-	$5.074
2016 Totals	3.302	-	$3.625
Jan 2017	3.321	-	$5.002
Feb	3.270	-	$4.514
Mar	3.258	$47.18	$4.766
Apr	3.253	$47.27	$4.607
May	3.261	$47	$4.623
Jun	3.273	$42.07	$4.144
Jul	3.230	$43.80	$4.386
Aug	3.216	-	$4.608
Sep	3.24	-	$4.882
Oct	3.346	$52.59	$5.456
Nov	3.502	$59.19	$6.021
Dec	3.535	$59.35	$6.504
2017 Totals	3.309	-	$4.959
Jan 2018	3.490	$63.29	$6.847
Feb	3.426	$60.14	$5.770
Mar	3.453	$59.95	$6.418
Apr	3.340	$64.60	$6.502
May	3.489	$69.80	$7.551
Jun	3.521	$69.32	$7.323
Jul	3.544	$69.16	$7.532
Aug	3.583	$69.65	$7.735
Sep	3.56	$74.15	$7.919
Oct	3.478	$73.38	$7.908
Nov	3.377	$61.09	$6.195
Dec	3.726	$52.80	$6.1
2018 Totals	3.498	$65.61	$6.953
Jan 2019	3.649	$56.15	$6.352

SOURCES

Lando, Ben and Heuvelen, Ben, “Iraq sustains near-record exports to start 2019,” Iraq Oil Report, 2/4/19

Xinhua, “Iraq exports 113 mln barrels of crude oil in January,” 2/1/19