SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s oil exports from its southern ports are stable at 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in December, Basra Oil Company chief Khalid Hamza told al-Sabah state paper.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer of crude, is fully committed to the OPEC+ oil cut deal, the state paper cited Hamza as saying in a report on Tuesday.
On December 3, 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+ sources have said Russia, Iraq, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates have all to a certain extent expressed interest in supplying the market with more oil in 2021.
On Saturday, Iraqi deputy oil minister for distribution affairs Karim Hattab said Baghdad aimed to increase crude oil export capacity from its southern ports to 6 million bpd from current 3.5 million barrels a day capacity, according to Reuters.
Hattab added that the increased capacity would be after 2023 and that the plan includes building 24 storage tanks.
