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Iraq’s oil exports rise in February, including to China
IraQ
IRAq’S Ministry of Oil has announced pre- liminary oil exports for February of 98,347,884 barrels, giving an average for the month of 3.391 million barrels per day (bpd), up from the 3.306 million bpd exported in January. These exports from the oilfields in central and southern Iraq amounted to 95,805,196 barrels, while exports from kirkuk amounted to 1,765,032 barrels, and from qayara 488,825 barrels. Exports to Jordan make up the balance and were 288,831 barrels.
Revenues for the month were $5.053 billion at an average price of $51.374 per barrel.
These figures reflect a rise of 3.3% in crude oil exports in February compared to the previous month, which followed a 3.5% decline in ship- ments from December to January, partly a result of bad weather in the Persian Gulf which in turn affected loadings.
The February figure is 311,000 lower than the all-time record of 3.726 million b/d in December 2018.
In February, Iraq said its January production fell 70,000 bpd to 4.47 million bpd, but this was still above its OPEC+ quota.
Up to last week, OPEC+ were trimming global output by 1.7 million bpd to soak up excess supply in the first quarter.
Production above quota
Iraq, which for most of last year flouted its OPEC+ quota, has been struggling to comply with its production limit of 4.46 million bpd that runs from January through March.
Within these figures, OPEC’s second-largest producer shipped 1.32 million barrels a day to China in February, the most in at least four years. The increase in Iraq’s shipments more than off- set reduced exports from the other three biggest Gulf Arab suppliers -- Saudi Arabia, kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The reasons for the 315,000 barrel-a-day surge in Iraqi exports weren’t completely clear,
though an increase in production in the coun- try’s kurdish region as well as at its big southern oil fields were contributing factors, according to Abu Dhabi-based consultant Jaafar Altaie.
“Part of it is good pricing, particularly for kurdish crude, that is getting Chinese buyers to take advantage regardless of demand destruc- tion,” said Altaie, managing director of Manaar Group.
China has emerged as one of the biggest buy- ers of kurdish crude this year. The semi-autono- mous region in northern Iraq ships its crude by pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. China has been the biggest buyer of kurdish crude for the last three months, and it nearly doubled pur- chases in February to 61,000 bpd.
Most Iraqi oil flows from the country’s south- ern fields, where Chinese companies are partners in production ventures. Exports of Iraq’s main grades to China from the Gulf port of Basrah dipped in January but recovered in February, exceeding last year’s average level.
The biggest oil producers in the Persian Gulf shipped 3.6 million barrels a day to China in February, which is equivalent to just over a third of the crude that the Asian nation imported in 2019. It’s also slightly higher than the 3.5 million barrels a day that the same producers sold to China in January.
Most China-bound shipments are organized at least a month in advance, meaning any direct impact from the coronavirus on cargo flows might start to materialize in March data.
Global oil demand is evaporating as the coro- navirus, which originated in China, cuts airline travel, forces workers to stay at home and hits supply chains.
Some analysts and traders are looking at sce- narios of zero growth in oil demand this year. Refiners in China asked for less oil from some suppliers for March as their storage tanks have begun to fill.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 10 11•March•2020