Iraq will maintain oil output at current levels

baghdad — Iraq will maintain oil production at current levels after exceeding 4.7 million barrels a day in September, even as other Opec members discuss limits on output.

Iraq asked the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries for an exemption from its participation in any cuts, Oil Minister Jabber Al Luaibi said on Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al Falih met on Sunday in Riyadh with energy officials from Russia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE for oil talks while Opec tries to establish which members will reduce production, and by how much. Iraq, the second-biggest Opec producer, is pumping close to record levels.

“We have passed 4.7 million barrels a day,” Falah Al Amri, the head of the state oil marketing company known as Somo, said at the same news conference. “We are not going back. It’s a question of sovereignty.”

Iraq pumped 4.228 million barrels a day at fields under the control of the federal government in Baghdad, Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al Nima said. Production at fields operated by the semiautonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq stood at 546,000 barrels daily last month, Al Nima said. Total exports were 3.871 million barrels a day in September, Al Amri said.

The Iraqi officials are briefing reporters on the country’s production after Oil Minister Al Luaibi disputed the data Opec uses to gauge output.