SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said the country would remain committed to OPEC’s decisions on oil production.
Jabbar told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday that Iraq would export 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, up from 2.7 million in November, according to Bloomberg.
Iraq will start shipping a new medium grade of its flagship Basrah crude in January and try to maximize its output of light oil, Bloomberg cited Jabbar as saying.
Bloomberg cited Jabbar as saying that Iraq is interested in rising prices rather than sales volumes, and several companies are bidding to buy oil in its first pre-payment deal for long-term supply.
On Thursday, OPEC and Russia agreed to ease deep oil production cuts from January by 500,000 bpd, but failed to come to a compromise on a broader policy for the rest of next year.
The increase means the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are set to reduce production by 7.2 million bpd, or 7% of global demand from January, compared with current cuts of 7.7 million bpd.
OPEC+ was expected to continue existing cuts until at least March, after backing down from plans to raise output by 2 million bpd.
OPEC+ has to strike a delicate balance between pushing up oil prices enough to help their budgets but not by so much that rival U.S. output surges. U.S. shale production tends to climb above $50 a barrel.
The Iraqi oil minister said Iraq plans by the end of the year to announce winners in bidding to develop the Mansuriya gas field, Bloomberg reported.
He added that Iraq targets a deal for the Akkas gas deposit in western Anbar province within six months. The federal government retook control of both Mansuriya and Akkas from Islamic State (ISIS) in late 2017.
