BAGHDAD: The Iraqi Oil Ministry released on Tuesday (June 21) its monthly report on exports, announcing $3.748 billion USD in revenue from oil exports was generated in May, 2016. Ministry of Oil Spokesman Asim Jihad said 99.200 million barrels of oil were exported in the previous month from central and southern oil ports.
There were no exports from Turkey’s port of Ceyhan where the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been exporting oil independently, “due to a lack of commitment from the KRG to an agreement it has with Baghdad,” Jihad said. “Quantities were shipped by 33 multinational companies to the ports of Basra and Khor Al-Amia and SPM from the Arab gulf,” the spokesman added.
Iraq’s oil exports for the month of April rose above the previous month as exports through southern ports reached to 3.364 million barrels per day (bpd). Oil exports through southern ports generated $3.343 billion USD for the Iraqi government in the month of April. The central Iraqi government ceased oil transfers to Ceyhan, citing the KRG’s failure to commit to an oil agreement signed by the two governments in December 2014.
Officials from Baghdad and Erbil signed the revenue sharing deal, under which the KRG would receive 17 percent of the federal budget in exchange for transferring 550,000 barrels of oil per day to SOMO in Ceyhan. Relations deteriorated between the two sides after Baghdad cut budget payments to the KRG over Erbil’s attempts at selling oil independent of SOMO.
