Iraq’s crude oil exports rise to three-month high

Oil

Iraq’s crude oil exports increased by 43K b/d m-o-m to 3.28M b/d in January, rising for the third consecutive month to the highest level since October 2020, according to Energy Intelligence reporting on shipping reports. This was largely driven by loadings from the Southern port of Basrah, which increased by 70K b/d m-o-m to 2.79M b/d after Iraq’s new ‘Basrah Medium’ crude launched earlier in the month. Exports of Kurdish and Kirkuk crude via the Turkish port of Ceyhan declined by 20K b/d m-o-m to 470K b/d however.

Iraq was around 98% compliant with its OPEC+ production target for January, as overall output increased by 50K b/d to 3.874M b/d. This is an over-production of around 17K b/d, however state oil marketer SOMO has stated that it will make additional cuts to compensate for this in February and March.