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BP and Cepsa cancel loadings of Iraqi Kurdistan oil from Turkish port
6/25/2015
LONDON,— BP and Cepsa have had to cancel loadings of Iraqi oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan in yet another sign of problems affecting shipments as the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Baghdad argue over exports and budget payments.
Traders said, and shipping data showed, on Wednesday that Kurdish and Iraqi crude was not flowing into Iraq’s state oil firm SOMO’s tanks for a tenth day running.
Trading sources said BP had to cancel two cargoes and Spain’s Cepsa had to cancel one they had been meant to receive at the end of June, due to insufficient oil in SOMO’s tanks.
The situation looks like a repeat of early June when Kurdistan did not load crude into SOMO’s tanks for several days, prompting market sources to suggest Erbil could restart large scale independent oil sales as it did in 2014.
Independent sales were sharply scaled down in December 2014 after Baghdad and Erbil clinched a deal under which the Kurds agreed to export 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil via SOMO in exchange for full resumption of budget payments.
Since then, both sides have accused each other of violating the deal, with Baghdad accusing Erbil of supplying less oil than agreed, and Erbil saying Baghdad has failed to pay its fair share of the budget.
A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official said Erbil remained committed to the deal, even though Baghdad was not, and had transferred more than 5 million barrels of oil to SOMO in June so far.
Some Kurdish parliamentarians have called for the deal to be called off by June 15 if Baghdad fails to pay up.
However, after interruptions to exports in early June, officials in both Baghdad and Erbil said they remained committed to respecting the December deal and blamed various technical factors for the suspension.
Iraqi oil flows via Ceyhan have been running at 550,000 barrels per day during recent months – enough to load one mid-sized tanker a day. However, allocations to SOMO have amounted to only one tanker in the past 10 days, according to one shipping
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6/25/2015
LONDON,— BP and Cepsa have had to cancel loadings of Iraqi oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan in yet another sign of problems affecting shipments as the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Baghdad argue over exports and budget payments.
Traders said, and shipping data showed, on Wednesday that Kurdish and Iraqi crude was not flowing into Iraq’s state oil firm SOMO’s tanks for a tenth day running.
Trading sources said BP had to cancel two cargoes and Spain’s Cepsa had to cancel one they had been meant to receive at the end of June, due to insufficient oil in SOMO’s tanks.
The situation looks like a repeat of early June when Kurdistan did not load crude into SOMO’s tanks for several days, prompting market sources to suggest Erbil could restart large scale independent oil sales as it did in 2014.
Independent sales were sharply scaled down in December 2014 after Baghdad and Erbil clinched a deal under which the Kurds agreed to export 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil via SOMO in exchange for full resumption of budget payments.
Since then, both sides have accused each other of violating the deal, with Baghdad accusing Erbil of supplying less oil than agreed, and Erbil saying Baghdad has failed to pay its fair share of the budget.
A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official said Erbil remained committed to the deal, even though Baghdad was not, and had transferred more than 5 million barrels of oil to SOMO in June so far.
Some Kurdish parliamentarians have called for the deal to be called off by June 15 if Baghdad fails to pay up.
However, after interruptions to exports in early June, officials in both Baghdad and Erbil said they remained committed to respecting the December deal and blamed various technical factors for the suspension.
Iraqi oil flows via Ceyhan have been running at 550,000 barrels per day during recent months – enough to load one mid-sized tanker a day. However, allocations to SOMO have amounted to only one tanker in the past 10 days, according to one shipping
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