Iraq announces extension of oil cut to Q2

BAGHDAD: Iraq will extend a voluntary oil production cut by 220,000 barrels per day into the second quarter of 2024, reported Xinhua quoting the Iraqi official news agency on Sunday.

The decision was made as part of an agreement among the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, collectively known as Opec+, to stabilise the global market, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) said, citing a statement by the country’s oil ministry.

Iraq’s crude oil production will be 4 million barrels per day until the end of June 2024, the INA said, adding that the production cut will be phased out later gradually according to market conditions.

The statement noted that “this voluntary cut is in addition to the voluntary reduction of 211,000 barrels per day previously announced by Iraq in April 2023, which will continue until the end of December 2024.”

Meanwhile, the country’s Oil Ministry announced Iraq exported about 99.59 million barrels of crude oil in February.

About 98.18 million barrels were exported from oil fields in central and southern Iraq via the port of Basra, 975,631 barrels from the Qayyara oilfield in the northern province of Nineveh, while 433,126 barrels were sent to the neighbouring Jordan, the ministry said in a statement, citing preliminary statistics from the State Organisation for Marketing of Oil, an Iraqi company.

In January, Iraq exported about 103.5 million barrels of crude oil, generating US$8.025 billion in revenue.

Iraq’s economy heavily relies on crude oil exports, which account for more than 90 per cent of the country’s revenues.