Oil exports from southern Iraq hit 3.490 million bpd in January



The average production in January is close to the record level of 3.535 million bpd in December.
Iraq’s total exports are expected to increase at a time when Iraq’s Kurdistan region is also exporting around 200,000 bpd through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea.

With output of 4.36 million barrels per day in January, Iraq is the second largest producer of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.
Iraq produces quantities below its maximum production capacity of about five million barrels per day in implementation of the agreement between OPEC and other exporters of oil, including Russia to curb global production in order to support crude prices.

Iraq’s exports may rise further in February, as Iraq plans to start exporting this month from the Kirkuk oil field in the north of the country to Iran using trucks.
The plan to transport crude by truck to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery comes under a swap deal announced by the two countries in December to allow resumption of crude exports from Kirkuk.
Iraq and Iran agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from Kirkuk with Iranian oil delivered in southern Iraq.
Kirkuk oil sales have stalled since Iraqi forces regained control of Kurdish oil fields in October.

Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk in 2014 when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of the organization of the Islamic state, in a move that prevented the militants from controlling the oil fields in the region.

Iraq and Iran are also planning to build a pipeline to transport oil from Kirkuk. The pipeline could replace the current export route from Kirkuk through Turkey and the Mediterranean.

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