Iraq’s oil exports
have been on a steady pace for most of the year, but a slight increase in
prices led to the highest monthly revenue for the country in August 2016.
In August Iraq maintained
its pace for exports. It averaged 3.23 million barrels a day, which kept pace for the rest of the year
where it has averaged 3.244 million barrels a month. In April Iraq reached
3.363 million barrels tying it for the highest level since 2003. It has not
been able to meet that mark again, because the Oil Ministry has diverted some of its production to power plants to produce electricity during
the summer heat wave and to refineries. If not it could have been doing 3.3
million in recent months.
What changed in
August was that prices saw a slight increase, that led to higher revenues. A
barrel of Iraqi crude sold for $39.24 up from $38.28 in July. That was the
second highest price of the year and led to $3.93 billion, which was the most
Iraq earned since making $4.908 billion in July. Despite that rise in profits
Baghdad is still not making the $4 billion a month it needs just to cover
salaries and pensions. There is hope that mark could be met in the rest of the
year however. The central and Kurdish regional government have just reached a
new temporary agreement to export oil through Kurdistan’s pipeline to Turkey. Each side will
sell an average of 150,000 barrels a day to the pipeline from the Kirkuk
fields. With both Baghdad and Irbil running huge deficits any increase in
revenues will help.
Iraq Oil Exports & Revenues
2015-16
|
Month
|
Avg.
Exports
|
Avg. Price
Per Barrel
|
Earnings
(Bil)
|
|
Jan
|
2.535
|
$41.45
|
$3.258
|
|
Feb
|
2.597
|
$47.43
|
$3.449
|
|
Mar
|
2.980
|
$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
|
$3.925
|
|
Sep
|
3.052
|
$40.32
|
$3.725
|
|
Oct
|
2.703
|
$39.56
|
$3.29
|
|
Nov
|
3.363
|
$36.42
|
$3.66
|
|
Dec
|
3.215
|
$29.84
|
$2.92
|
|
2015 Avg.
|
3.003
|
$44.81
|
$4.094
|
|
Jan
|
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
|
3.200
|
$37.78
|
$3.748
|
|
Jun
|
3.176
|
$40.36
|
$3.845
|
|
Jul
|
3.202
|
$38.28
|
$3.802
|
|
Aug
|
3.23
|
$39.24
|
$3.93
|
|
2016 Avg.
|
3.244
|
$32.83
|
$3.26
|
SOURCES
eKurd, “Iraqi Kurdistan
News in brief – August 30, 2016,” 8/30/16
Lando, Ben, “Oil
exports and revenue are back up,” Iraq Oil Report, 9/1/16
Platts, “Iraq’s
August crude oil exports inch up to 3.230 million b/d,” 9/1/16
Tahir, Rawaz, Van
Heuvelen, Ben, and Lando, Ben, “Baghdad-Erbil export deal moves forward,” Iraq
Oil Report, 9/2/16
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