“The sales of Iraqi crude oil from the southern ports of Basra’s light, medium and heavy oil, as well as from the northern port of Kirkuk crude oil exported by the Oil Marketing Company through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, achieved a total of 33 billion dollars, and an average monthly rate of about 5 billion and 500 million dollars,” SOMO’s deputy director general, Ali Nizar Faeq, told Iraqi state media on Sunday.
Exports from the Kurdistan Region account for $4.8 billion, he added.
China is the top customer for Iraqi oil exports, followed by India, according to the official, who said “Iraq is proud” of its exports to New Delhi “despite tight regional competition from neighboring oil exporting countries.”
Nearly half of Iraq’s oil exports go to China, a financial advisor to Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Thursday.
“China is the first market for the Iraqi oil exports, and it alone consumes about 40-44 percent of Iraqi oil exports, with about 800,000 barrels of oil per day,” he said.
"A small portion of these exports is the dues of oil service contracts for Chinese companies operating in Iraq, to which 100,000 barrels per day were recently added,” he added.
The Iraqi government is dependent on oil revenues to cover its costs and pay the salaries of civil servants. Record low oil prices during the pandemic last year caused a financial crisis in Iraq, but a recent boost in oil markets and the central bank’s decision in December to devalue dinar against the dollar have eased the crisis.
According to the oil ministry’s latest monthly report, Iraq exported 86.7 million barrels of oil in June, with an average daily export of 2.9 million barrels. The exports brought in $6.1 billion, selling at around $70 per barrel.
Production limits imposed by the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were recently eased for Iraq and several other countries, spelling good news for Baghdad.
