Iraq Hits New Oil Export Highs in April

Iraq’s crude oil exports averaged 2.508 million bpd in April, the highest level in decades, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) has announced.

The figure was up 8.3 percent on March’s 2.317 million bpd, Falah al-Amri told Bloomberg. Oil sales in April generated $8.8 billion in revenue from a total of 75.25 million barrels, compared with $8.47 billion from 71.827 million barrels in March.

The opening of two new floating single point mooring (SPM) terminals has significantly eased export constraints.

“Our goal is to export 2.6 million barrels per day, and we are about to reach this point,” oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP.

Iraq exported 2.12 million bpd by sea from Basra and 387,000 bpd from Kirkuk through a pipeline to Turkey. It also sent 6,000 bpd by truck into Jordan.

Iraq produced 2.89 million barrels a day of crude in April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Exports gained in April even as the self-ruled Kurdish region of northern Iraq stopped pumping crude on April 1 through a pipeline controlled by the central government. The halt came amid a dispute over the sharing of revenue from oil pumped at Kurdish fields.

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