BAGHDAD: Iraq has increased exports from its southern oilfields to 3.45 million barrels per day (bpd) to make up for a shortfall from the northern Kirkuk fields, Basra Oil Company Director General Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told Reuters on Monday.
Output from Kirkuk fell earlier this month when Iraqi forces took back control of fields from Kurdish fighters who had been there since 2014.
The oil ministry said on Oct. 21 an extra 200,000 bpd would be shipped from Basra on top of the usual volumes. Exports from Basra had previously averaged 3.23 million bpd, Abdul Jabbar said on the sidelines of the Basra Oil, Gas and Infrastructure conference in Beirut.
Abdul Jabbar also said the Basra Oil Company aimed to increase the southern oilfields’ production capacity to 6 million bpd by 2020. Iraq’s total capacity is close to 4.8 million bpd, with most of it coming from the southern region.
