Iraq’s oil exports in October 2015 were the third lowest of
the year. The international energy market was unkind to the country as well
with the lowest prices as well. The decline was due to poor weather that shut
down the southern ports and the final end to the budget deal with the Kurdistan
Regional Government.
In October Iraq’s oil exports declined 10%. Foreign sales
went from 91,552,863
barrels in September to 83,000,935 in October, which averaged out to 3.052
million barrels a day down to 2.7 million. That was the third lowest export
average of the year with only January, 2.535 million and February, 2.597
million having lower figures. There were two factors behind the drop. First,
bad weather shut down the ports in Basra from October 28-30, which stopped the
loading of crude completely. This often happens in Iraq. The other issue was that
the budget deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) finally ended.
Starting in June,
the Kurds decided to ship most of its petroleum for itself rather than for
Baghdad. Before that, the KRG exported for the State Oil Marketing Organization
(SOMO) in return for 17% of the budget. The reason why the agreement broke down
was that neither side met its obligations. The Kurds sent less and less for the
central government until reaching zero in October. The oil flow via the south
went up since June to partially make up for this loss, but poor weather
intervened last month.
Iraq faced a third issue in October, the lowest oil prices
of the year. Iraqi crude sold for $39.56 per barrel last month, the first time
it had dropped below $40. From April to July prices recovered a bit and
surpassed $50, but have gone down since the summer. That meant Iraq only earned
$3.32 billion in October, the second lowest of 2015. This will only add to the
already growing budget deficit that the nation is facing.
Iraq
Oil Exports & Revenues 2014-15
Month
|
Avg.
Exports
|
Avg.
Price
Per
Barrel
|
Earnings
(Bil)
|
Jan. 14
|
2.228
|
$102.37
|
$7.074
|
Feb
|
2.799
|
$102.05
|
$8.001
|
Mar
|
2.396
|
$101.03
|
$7.507
|
Apr
|
2.509
|
$100.69
|
$7.582
|
May
|
2.582
|
$100.69
|
$8.077
|
Jun
|
2.423
|
$102.96
|
$7.470
|
Jul
|
2.442
|
$102.27
|
$7.742
|
Aug
|
2.375
|
$97.44
|
$7.172
|
Sep
|
2.542
|
$90.76
|
$6.916
|
Oct
|
2.432
|
$81.12
|
$6.120
|
Nov
|
2.51
|
$70.40
|
$5.25
|
Dec
|
2.941
|
$56.59
|
$5.161
|
2014
Avg.
|
2.51
|
$92.39
|
$7.013
|
Jan
|
2.535
|
$41.45
|
$3.258
|
Feb
|
2.597
|
$47.43
|
$3.449
|
Mar
|
2.98
|
$48.24
|
$4.457
|
Apr
|
3.077
|
$51.70
|
$4.8
|
May
|
3.145
|
$55.87
|
$5.447
|
Jun
|
3.187
|
$55.32
|
$5.289
|
Jul
|
3.104
|
$50.99
|
$4.908
|
Aug
|
3.079
|
$40.59
|
$3.874
|
Sep
|
3.052
|
$40.32
|
$3.692
|
Oct
|
2.7
|
$39.56
|
$3.320
|
2015
Oil Exports From Basra
Jan 2.39 mil/bar/day
Feb 2.29 mil/bar/day
Mar 2.71 mil/bar/day
Apr 2.62 mil/bar/day
May 2.69 mil/bar/day
Jun 3.022 mil/bar/day
Jul 3.064 mil/bar/day
Aug 3.021 mil/bar/day
Sep 3.03 mil/bar/day
Oct 2.7 mil/bar/day
2015
Oil Exports By Kurds
Jan 153,000 bar/day
Feb 306,000 bar/day
Mar 268,000 bar/day
Apr 450,000 bar/day
May 451,000 bar/day
Jun 164,733 bar/day
Jul 41,000 bar/day
Aug 50,900 bar/day
Sep 21,500 bar/day
Oct 0.0 bar/day
SOURCES
Osgood, Patrick, Tahir, Rawaz, and Van Heveneln, Ben, “New
deatisl of KRG oil deals reveal latent risks,” Iraqi Oil Report, 10/29/15
Reuters, “Iraq’s October oil exports fall to average 2.7 mln
bpd – oil ministry,” 11/1/15
Sotaliraq, “Decline in oil exports for the month of October
by about 84 million barrels,” 11/1/15
No comments:
Post a Comment