Iraq's current southern oil output is averaging about 3 million barrels per day (bpd) and average export levels stand at about 2.5 million bpd, the country's oil minister said Saturday.
The output and export levels indicate that fighting and unrest has not derailed an expansion of supplies from OPEC's second-largest producer.
"Of course the average daily production in Iraq sometimes exceeded 3 million barrels per day, we may sometimes reach 3.2 million barrels per day," oil minister Adel Abdel Mehdi told reporters.
"Some of it goes to domestic refineries. The numbers are unstable. ... The average exports also climbed to an average of about 2.5 million barrels per day."
Iraq's southern production capacity has been fluctuating, sometimes reaching 3.4-3.5 million bpd.
Iraq is facing its gravest crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. ISIS militants swept through the north in June almost unopposed by the army.
The ultra-hardline Al-Qaeda offshoot has seized oil and petroleum products in an attempt to create a self-sustaining caliphate. U.S. airstrikes in recent weeks have helped prevent the group from making further advances.
Iraq's oil exports from its southern terminals held close to a record high in October.
Exports from Iraq's southern terminals averaged 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd), according to shipping data for the first 23 days of October tracked by Reuters. An industry source who monitors the exports had a similar estimate.
Iraq's oil supplies were held back by decades of war and sanctions. It has been expanding oil production in the south since Western companies signed a series of service contracts with Baghdad in 2010, and boosted export capacity.
Updated 16 Nov 2014 | Soruce: Daily Star |