Monday, February 10, 2020

Iraq’s Oil Exports And Profits Down In Jan 2020

(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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