 |
| (Oil Price.com) |
For the second month in a row both Iraq’s oil exports and its profits dropped. The former is due to Baghdad attempting to conform to its OPEC production quota, while the latter is because oil prices have gone down as U.S.-Iran tensions have dissipated and worries of an oil glut continue.
In January
2020 Iraq exported a total of 102.485 million barrels of oil. That averaged
out to 3.306
million barrels a day (mbd). That was down from December’s 3.428 mbd and
November’s 3.5 mbd. The Oil Ministry has been reducing its exports recently
after it reached an all-time high in production last year, which grossly
violated its agreement with OPEC to cut output. The result was that January’s
figure was the lowest since September 2017. It was also below 2019’s average of
3.527 mbd.
Prices and revenues have also been dipping. In April a
barrel of Iraqi crude sold for $67.41. Since then prices have been declining
hitting roughly $50 per barrel from August to November before U.S.-Iran
tensions led prices to rise to $63.05 in December. They then went down to
$60.45 in January. Throughout most of 2019 there were reports of an oil glut,
which OPEC has tried to counter with its production cuts. That led to Iraq’s
profits to go from $6.698 billion in December to $6.195 billion in January.
Iraq depends for almost all of its money upon petroleum sales. Unfortunately,
the politicians do a horrible job budgeting those funds and constantly seek to
expand their spending, mostly upon new government jobs, which they doll out in
their patronage networks to preserve their power. Oil prices have largely been
flat since 2017 hovering around $60 per barrel and yet Iraq’s parliament
continues to add more jobs to the budget.
Federal Oil
Exports, Prices, Revenues 2014-2019
|
Month
|
Avg Export (Mil)
|
Avg Price
|
Earnings (Bil)
|
|
2014
Totals
|
2.517
|
$92.39
|
$7.017
|
|
2015
Totals
|
3.003
|
$44.81
|
$4.094
|
|
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
|
$6.234
|
|
2018
Totals
|
3.498
|
$65.61
|
$6.953
|
|
Jan 2019
|
3.649
|
$56.15
|
$6.367
|
|
Feb
|
3.621
|
$60.83
|
$6.179
|
|
Mar
|
3.377
|
$63.80
|
$6.709
|
|
Apr
|
3.466
|
$67.41
|
$7.021
|
|
May
|
3.572
|
$66.68
|
$7.329
|
|
Jun
|
3.52
|
$60.58
|
$6.372
|
|
Jul
|
3.566
|
$61.15
|
$6.692
|
|
Aug
|
3.603
|
$57.41
|
$6.413
|
|
Sep
|
3.576
|
$59.14
|
$6.321
|
|
Oct
|
3.447
|
$57.15
|
$6.121
|
|
Nov
|
3.5
|
$59.82
|
$6.282
|
|
Dec
|
3.428
|
$63.05
|
$6.7
|
|
2019 Totals
|
3.527
|
$61.09
|
$6.543
|
|
Jan 2020
|
3.306
|
$60.45
|
$6.195
|
SOURCES
Lando, Ben, “Iraqi oil exports and revenues drop in rough
start to the year,” Iraq Oil Report, 2/4/20
Xinhua, “Iraq’s crude exports exceed 102 mln barrels in
Jan.,” 2/1/20
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