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Friday, Mar 09, 2012
(Adds details on Iraq's export capacity, targets and production throughout.)
By Hassan Hafidh
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Iraq has started crude oil exports from a new floating terminal, a senior Iraqi oil official said Friday, alleviating a bottleneck and increasing the country's daily export capacity by 900,000 barrels of oil.
Iraq has had to reduce its production from southern oil fields in recent months because it didn't have enough export capacity, but the new Single-point Mooring, or SPM, terminal means the country will be able to increase exports from its southern oil fields to some 2.2 million barrels a day this year, and brings total export capacity in the south to 2.7 million barrels a day, officials said.
Exports of the Kirkuk crude from the country's north are expected to remain steady at around 400,000 barrels a day, meaning Iraq's total export target this year would reach 2.6 million barrels a day. Iraq, a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is currently producing around 2.9 million barrels a day while exports averaged 2.2 million barrels a day last year.
It aims to raise production to 3.4 million barrels a day this year, according to Oil Ministry figures, and to achieve that is seeking to ease bottlenecks, rejuvenate aging pipelines and build new storage for crude.
The official, who is from the country's largest oil firm the South Oil Co., said loading began at around 1245 local time Thursday at a rate ranging between 10,000-25,000 barrels an hour.
"If things go well and we don't have any problem, we are expected to finish loading the first vessel with 2 million barrels capacity in two days from now," said the official who asked not to be named.
Iraq had opened last month the new SPM, built by a subsidiary of Australia's Leighton Holding Ltd. (LEI.AU), but bad weather and some technical faults delayed the start of loading.
The Iraqi government has signed 11 oil deals with international oil companies over the last three years, with the aim of bringing its output to at least 8 million barrels a day later this decade.
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(Adds details on Iraq's export capacity, targets and production throughout.)
By Hassan Hafidh
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Iraq has started crude oil exports from a new floating terminal, a senior Iraqi oil official said Friday, alleviating a bottleneck and increasing the country's daily export capacity by 900,000 barrels of oil.
Iraq has had to reduce its production from southern oil fields in recent months because it didn't have enough export capacity, but the new Single-point Mooring, or SPM, terminal means the country will be able to increase exports from its southern oil fields to some 2.2 million barrels a day this year, and brings total export capacity in the south to 2.7 million barrels a day, officials said.
Exports of the Kirkuk crude from the country's north are expected to remain steady at around 400,000 barrels a day, meaning Iraq's total export target this year would reach 2.6 million barrels a day. Iraq, a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is currently producing around 2.9 million barrels a day while exports averaged 2.2 million barrels a day last year.
It aims to raise production to 3.4 million barrels a day this year, according to Oil Ministry figures, and to achieve that is seeking to ease bottlenecks, rejuvenate aging pipelines and build new storage for crude.
The official, who is from the country's largest oil firm the South Oil Co., said loading began at around 1245 local time Thursday at a rate ranging between 10,000-25,000 barrels an hour.
"If things go well and we don't have any problem, we are expected to finish loading the first vessel with 2 million barrels capacity in two days from now," said the official who asked not to be named.
Iraq had opened last month the new SPM, built by a subsidiary of Australia's Leighton Holding Ltd. (LEI.AU), but bad weather and some technical faults delayed the start of loading.
The Iraqi government has signed 11 oil deals with international oil companies over the last three years, with the aim of bringing its output to at least 8 million barrels a day later this decade.
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