Iraq boosts oil exports

2004-03-05 11:24

Cairo - Iraq increased oil production and sales this week after rehabilitating an export terminal on the Gulf, the US-led coalition said in Baghdad.

Iraq produced 2.5 million barrels of oil on Sunday, the biggest daily total since the fall of Saddam Hussein last April, it said.

This remains below the 2.8 million bpd production average of the period just before the US-led invasion, but because of the high oil prices, it will result in higher-than-expected revenue for the Iraqi budget, said the coalition.

The coalition approved last year a US$14bn budget for the Iraqi transitional government in 2004, generated from oil sales. The current export and price averages might actually generate up to $16bn, it said.

The exports, currently set at 1.8 million bpd, are flowing only through the southern offshore loading terminals on the Gulf. Sabotage in the so-called Sunni Triangle in the north is preventing Iraq from using the pipeline running to the Mediterranean through Turkey.

Southern Oil Co director general Jabar Ali al-Lueibi said on Tuesday the Khor al-Amaya terminal on the Gulf resumed operation on February 27, after a 30-year halt due to severe damage caused by the 1980-1988 war with Iran.

Al-Lueibi said in the Gulf emirate of Dubai that export capacity at Khor al-Amaya was between 400 000 and 500 000 bpd, and it was hoped to lift this to 1.2 million bpd by the end of the year.

The rest of Iraq's current exports are being loaded in the Basra terminal.

In late January, Iraq's oil ministry estimated production for that month at 2.3 million bpd and exports at 1.7 million bpd.

It expected to reach the pre-war oil production level of 2.8 million bpd by the end of this month, and hike it further to between three and four million by the end of 2005, and to six million by 2010.

Iraq's 112.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves are the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

- AFX