Monthly report: KRG exported an average 516k bpd in July

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region, Iraq - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) exported 16,019,090 barrels of crude oil, for an average of 516,745 barrels per day (bpd), in the month of July through the Kurdistan pipeline network to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, the Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources said Wednesday in its monthly report. 

"Of this amount, fields operated by the KRG contributed 12,020,683 barrels, or 387,764 bpd on average, while fields operated by the North Oil Company contributed 3,998,407 barrels, or an average of 128,981 bpd," read the report. 

The monthly report continued: "In July, the KRG supplied SOMO [Iraq's State Organization for marketing of Oil] in Ceyhan with 2,201,540 barrels, an average of 71,017 bpd. The KRG intended to deliver to SOMO a further 2 million barrels at the end of July but was unable to do so because of the interruption in the export pipeline."

Due to unforeseen circumstances, during July there were 111 hours of downtime for the export pipeline, occurring mostly occurred at the end of the month. 

"At the time of writing, the pipeline was still down," the report said.

In July, the KRG continued to increase its direct oil sales in Ceyhan to compensate the for the budget shortfalls from the federal government in Baghdad and to continue to pay down debts accumulated in 2014 from pre-payments for direct oil sales.

The KRG will continue to work with its counterparts in Iraq’s federal government to reach a resolution on all the outstanding issues of oil and gas as described in the joint statement of June 17 by the KRG’s Regional Council for Oil and Gas Affairs and the five political parties in the KRG. 

Kurdish and Iraqi officials signed an agreement last year by which Erbil would sell 550,000 barrels of oil per day and in return for its 17 percent share of the national budget.

Even so, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani claimed after a June 17 meeting with Kurdish political parties, that the KRG can directly export its oil to world markets without going through Baghdad.