Iraq’s crude exports drop to 2.228mn bpd

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussein al-Shahristani (centre) listens during a gathering of politicians and oil experts to discuss the export of oil from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region in Baghdad yesterday. Iraq has threatened to boycott Turkish companies and cancel contracts with Turkish firms in an intensifying row over moves to export oil from its northern Kurdish region.Reuters/BaghdadCrude exports from Iraq declined in January to an average of 2.228mn bpd but should rise next month, Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said yesterday. Luaibi attributed the drop from 2.341mn bpd in December to attacks on the pipeline carrying oil from the northern Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey, as well as disruption to shipping from Iraq’s southern ports due to bad weather. But the completion of work on a new platform at Basra ports in February will increase export capacity to more than 5mn bpd, he forecast. Of the 2.228mn bpd exported in January, 2.036 came from Basra and 192,000 from Kirkuk, Luaibi said, adding that Iraq is aiming to ship more oil to Africa in addition to Asian and European markets. “We have demand from Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt and some other countries - this market is promising,” Luaibi said at a seminar attended by senior officials including Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein al-Shahristani. Outlining challenges faced by the Iraqi oil industry, al-Shahristani cited a lack of consensus over how to exploit the country’s hydrocarbon reserves and reiterated his position that the federal government has exclusive rights to do so. The federal government in Baghdad is at loggerheads with the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north, which has built its own export pipeline to Turkey and says it is entitled to market crude on its own terms. Negotiations between the two sides have so far borne little fruit, but the flow of oil through the new pipeline has accelerated efforts to find a compromise. “Although we had some progress, it hasn’t been settled yet,” al-Shahristani said. “We hope this will be finished within the next short period.”Baghdad flays Kurds over ‘grey area’Iraq’s top minister responsible for energy affairs yesterday criticised the autonomous Kurdish region’s push towards exporting oil independently of Baghdad, calling it a grey area lacking in transparency. Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein al-Shahristani’s remarks are the latest salvo in a long-running row between the central government and the northern Kurdish region over energy sales and, by extension, the extent of federalism in Iraq. “The most prominent challenge is that we have not reached a national agreement to extract and market oil from all of Iraq’s territory,” al-Shahristani said in a speech in Baghdad at an event looking at the past decade for Iraq’s energy industry. “The situation with the Kurdistan region is still stuck. This file is not resolved, in spite of some progress having been made. We hope it will end soon.” Shahristani continued: “We have a grey area—we do not know how much oil the region is extracting, what price they are selling at, and where the revenue goes.” Baghdad argues that all oil sales must be overseen by the central government, and regards any independent exports as tantamount to smuggling. US Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Kurdish President Massud Barzani by telephone on Friday to discuss reaching an agreement with the central government on oil sales. “The vice president and President Barzani both confirmed the need for close co-operation between the Kurdistan regional government and the Iraqi government to reach agreement on a way forward on the matter of energy exports and revenue sharing,” the White House said.