BASRA, Iraq
Iraq’s crude oil exports from its southern ports on the Gulf stood at 3.490 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, two Iraqi oil executives told Reuters on Thursday.
The average for January is close to December’s record 3.535 million bpd.
Iraq’s total exports should be higher as the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region also exports about 200,000 bpd through a pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
With an output of 4.36 million bpd in January, Iraq is the second-largest producer of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), after Saudi Arabia.
The country is producing below its maximum capacity of nearly 5 million bpd under an agreement between Opec and other exporters including Russia to curtail output in order to support oil prices.
Iraq’s exports could increase further in February as Iraq plans to start exports this month from the northern Kirkuk oilfield to Iran using tanker trucks.
The plan to truck crude to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery is part of a swap agreement announced in December by the two countries to allow a resumption of oil exports from Kirkuk.
Iraq and Iran have agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from Kirkuk for Iranian oil to be delivered to southern Iraq.
Kirkuk crude sales have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the oilfields from the Kurds in October.
Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State. The Kurdish move prevented the militants from seizing the region’s oilfields.
Iraq and Iran are also planning to build a pipeline to carry oil from Kirkuk. The planned pipeline could replace the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean.
