BASRA: Oil exports from Iraq’s southern ports are averaging 3.144 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in June, down from May due to maintenance work and weather, a South Oil Co. official said on Tuesday.
State-run South Oil oversees Iraq’s operations in the southern provinces that produce most of the OPEC’s nation’s crude. Iraq exported 3.2 million bpd in May and 3.364 million bpd in April from its southern ports, according to official figures. “There are expectations that the daily average will return to the previous level as periodic maintenance carried out on different facilities is finished,” the official said.
The central government in Baghdad halted exports from the northern Kirkuk fields in March because of a financial dispute with the Kurdish self-rule administration in the region. The Kurds exported about 513,000 bpd of crude in May, independently from Baghdad, via a pipeline to Turkey.
