Iraqi oil revenues achieve slight rise in March

The Oil Ministry announced on Thursday a slight increase in the total exported quantities of crude oil and revenue earned for March compared to last February, indicating that the amount of exports amounted to 101 million barrels, with revenues amounted to $ 4.766 billion.
 
The spokesman for Oil Ministry, Assem Jihad, said, in a statement, that the total exported quantities of crude oil last March of the oil fields in central and southern Iraq reached 99 million and 500 thousand barrels of revenues amounted to 4 billion and 697 million dollars, while the total exports from the Kirkuk oil reached one million and 500 thousand barrels, with earnings of $ 69 million.
 
Jihad added that the average price per barrel reached 47.188 dollars, noting that the quantities exported have been loaded by 32 international companies from different nationalities from the ports of Basra and Khor al-Amaya and buoys unilateralism on the Gulf and Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

On the other hand, Iraqi oil minister stressed that Iraq will go with the consensus reached by OPEC when the oil exporter group meets in Vienna next month to discuss extending production cuts.
 
"Now we're going on the 25th of May to OPEC and we're definitely going to be in line with OPEC's final decision and collective decisions," Jabar al-Luaibi told a conference in Paris.
 
Iraq, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was in full compliance with the OPEC-led supply pact reached last year and has achieved about 97 percent of its output reduction target, Luaibi said.
 
"Iraq is fully committed and Iraq is in full compliance with OPEC members," Luaibi said. He added that the OPEC-led cuts were gradually leading to a long-awaited rebalancing of the oil market.

Luaibi said the OPEC decision to cut did not mean countries should stop developing their oil industries. Earlier this month, Luaibi said Iraq planned to raise its oil output capacity to 5 million bpd before the end of the year.